SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 



BY 
WILLIAM CHANDLER BAGLEY 

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 

AUTHOR OF "THE EDUCATIVE PROCESS," "CLASSROOM MANAGE- 
MENT," "EDUCATIONAL VALUES," "CRAFTSMAN- 
SHIP IN TEACHING," ETC. 



mta gork 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1914 

All rights reserved 



L~*B -sew 
oil 



Copyright, 1914, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published December, 1914. 



Norfaonft ^wss 

J. 8. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 

©CI.A388669 



PREFACE 

The following chapters have been written with the 
needs and problems of the young teacher primarily in 
view. An effort has been made to present in a con- 
crete way the various steps that may be taken to es- 
tablish a wholesome school " spirit" that will reduce 
disciplinary difficulties to a minimum. To this end, 
most of the chapters deal rather with positive and non- 
coercive than with restrictive and repressive methods 
of treatment. 

By way of introduction, the essential characteristics of 
a well-disciplined school are described, and the problem 
of creating these conditions is stated. The unruly or 
disorderly school is then assumed ; the various causes 
which lead to disorder are analyzed ; and the steps that 
may be taken to transform the situation are discussed 
in detail with as many typical concrete illustrations as 
the limitations of space permit. Coercive measures are 
treated briefly, following the discussion of the positive 
measures. An attempt has been made to outline the 
evolution of the idea of punishment as a coercive 
agency ; and the different types of penalties com- 
monly employed in the school are described and evalu- 
ated. Difficult and troublesome " cases " of discipline 
are then discussed, an attempt being made to classify 



VI PREFACE 

these into "types" and to report in some detail the 
methods that have been employed by successful teach- 
ers in dealing with each type. A final chapter discusses 
the relation of discipline to the doctrine of interest. 

The illustrative cases have been drawn from a num- 
ber of different sources; some have been taken from 
earlier books on school management ; others from school 
journals ; and a great many from the experience of 
teachers and principals with whom the writer has dis- 
cussed the disciplinary problem. In every instance, so 
far as the writer has been able to determine, the cases 
report actual conditions with trustworthy fidelity. 

In connection v/ith the classification of "troublesome 
types" (Chapter XII), it should be understood that 
both the naming of the types and their grouping are 
only tentative. A rich field is here suggested that 
would amply repay intensive investigation. 

A series of questions and exercises is appended to 
each chapter. The aim of these questions is prima- 
rily to provide a " study outline " for those who use 
the book as a text, either in class work or in individual 
study. Two types of questions find a place in these 
lists : first, " fact " questions that refer to the discus- 
sions of the text; and, secondly, "problem" questions 
which aim to encourage in the reader an application as 
well as an understanding of the principles. Questions 
of the latter type are the more numerously represented. 

The writer is indebted to Professor L. D. Coffman 
for a number of the concrete cases and for many sug- 
gestions regarding the construction of the book. Per- 



PREFACE Vll 

mission has very kindly been granted by the American 
Book Company to reprint from White's School Manage- 
ment three illustrative cases; and the committee of 
teachers in the Washington Irving High School in 
charge of publication have permitted the use of three 
extracts from the unique Writs of Assistance, recently 
issued. 

Four of the chapters here presented appeared in a 
somewhat different form as articles in School and Home 
Education during the years 19 12-13 an d I 9 I 3~ I 4- 

Urbana, Illinois, 

November, 1914. 



PAGE 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

WHAT IS MEANT BY A WELL-DISCIPLINED 
SCHOOL 

The paradox of discipline. — Changes in ideals of discipline. — 
The well-disciplined school dominated by a " fashion " of good 
order. — Meaning of " fashion." — Illustration of a well-disciplined 
school. — The meaning of discipline. — Protection of the group. 
— Educative influence of good discipline. — Summary: the three 
functions of school discipline. — Questions and exercises . . 1 

CHAPTER II 
THE UNRULY SCHOOL: ITS GENERAL CAUSES 

Characteristic symptoms of the unruly spirit. — The causes of 
the unruly school: (a) Harsh and unsympathetic treatment. — 
Conditions favoring such treatment. — (&) Indulgence and weak- 
ness of control. — Difficulties of reconciling opposing ideals of 
individualism and collectivism. — (c) Inadequate preparation and 
brief tenure of teachers. — Disciplinary efficiency a product of 
experience. — Disciplinary weakness a frequent cause of failure 
among teachers. — Alleged advantages of youth and inexperience 
among teachers. — Questions and exercises 14 

CHAPTER III 

THE UNRULY SCHOOL: ITS SPECIFIC CAUSES 

Problem of the chapter. — The teacher's personality. — Impor- 
tant elements in a teaching personality: Clapp's studies. — The 
qualities of personality negatively important in discipline : (a) Lack 
of sympathy. — (b) Vacillation or weakness of the will. — (c) Pro- 
crastination. — (d) Ungoverned temper. — (e) Tactlessness. — 



X CONTENTS 

PAGE 

(/) Failure to get the pupil's point of view. — Minor causes of 
the unruly school : (a) Failure to mechanize routine. — (b) The 
faulty voice. — (c) Failure to limit responsibility for disciplinary 
duties. — Questions and exercises 29 

CHAPTER IV 

TRANSFORMING THE UNRULY SCHOOL: (A) THE 
IMPORTANCE OF THE OBJECTIVE ATTITUDE 

Problem of the chapter. — What is meant by the objective atti- 
tude. — Obstacles in the way of the objective attitude: (a) Atti- 
tude of the public toward teaching. — (b) Influence of short- 
sighted educational theories. — Suggestions for cultivating the 
objective attitude : (a) Locking disciplinary worries in the school- 
room. — (b) Avoiding the poison of injured feelings. — (c) Absorp- 
tion in objective problems. — Questions and exercises ... 51 

CHAPTER V 

TRANSFORMING THE UNRULY SCHOOL: (B) RAIS- 
ING THE QUALITATIVE STANDARDS OF 
SCHOOL WORK 

Problem of the chapter. — A rational attitude of the pupils 
toward school discipline, the goal. — Making the work the master. 
— Difficulties in the way of insuring this end. — Raising qualita- 
tive standards as one means of making the work the master : 
(a) The use of objective scales and standards. — (b) Encouraging 
pupils to compete with their own best records. — (c) Encouraging 
group rivalry. — Summary. — Questions and exercises ... 62 

CHAPTER VI 

TRANSFORMING THE UNRULY SCHOOL: (C) THE 
EMPLOYMENT OF INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS 

Problem of the chapter. — The importance of individual prob- 
lems. — The pupil should feel a responsibility to the class as well 
as to the teacher in working individual problems. — Individual 
problems should have a value clearly understood by the pupils. — 
Types of individual assignments : (a) In geography. — (b) In 



CONTENTS XI 

PAGE 

reading. — (c) In arithmetic. — {d) The framing of questions by 
pupils. — ■ (e) The project in manual training as a type of individ- 
ual assignment. — (/) School " dramatics " and festivals as sources 
of individual assignments. — Concrete illustrations of the disci- 
plinary effect of individual assignments. — The need of caution in 
generalizing from concrete cases. — Questions and exercises . 75 



CHAPTER VII 

TRANSFORMING THE UNRULY SCHOOL: (B) STIM- 
ULATING GROUP RESPONSIBILITY 

Problem of the chapter. — The importance of developing group 
responsibility. — The limitations of group responsibility : (a) The 
older conception of the teacher as a master to be modified but not 
entirely abandoned. — (b) The danger of purchasing order with 
favors. — The "honor system" as a case in point. — The attitude 
of the pupils all-important. — Specific measures that may be taken 
to intensify group responsibility : (a) Demanding collective rep- 
aration for collective offenses. — (b) Rallying pupils to support 
the good name of the school. — (c) Encouraging mutual criticism : 
advantages and dangers. — Espionage and talebearing as related 
to group responsibility. — Suggestions for avoiding the encour- 
agement of talebearing. — Pupil self-government schemes may 
serve temporary purposes. — Segregating group responsibility by 
conferring authority on the older pupils : the English system. — 
The development of a " fashion " of good order does away with 
the necessity for formal systems of self-government. — The role 
of literary and athletic organizations in stimulating group respon- 
sibility. — Suggestions for supervising pupil and student organiza- 
tions. — Questions and exercises 90 

CHAPTER VIII 

TRANSFORMING THE UNRULY SCHOOL: (E) THE 
TONIC INFLUENCE OF A REGIMEN OF WORK 

The importance of developing " habits of work." — The specific 
habit of adopting the work attitude during school hours. — The 
disciplinary effect of a regimen of work. — Establishing the regi- 
men : (a) The need of alert control. — (b) Nervous tension must 



xil CONTENTS 

PAGE 

be avoided. — (c) The dirigibility of enthusiasm. — (d) Enemies of 
enthusiasm : (1) Unsympathetic supervision. — (2) Short-sighted 
criticism of school studies. — (3) The necessity for teaching many 
subjects some of which the teacher may dislike. — (4) Individual 
worries and cares. — (5) Administrative difficulties blocking the 
development of a regimen of work. — Questions and exercises . 119 

CHAPTER IX 

TRANSFORMING THE UNRULY SCHOOL: (F) THE 
PLACE AND LIMITATIONS OF COERCIVE 
MEASURES 

Problem of the chapter. — The scope of direct coercion : often 
an initial but always only a supplementary method of transform- 
ing the unruly school. — The first principle": coercive measures 
must be swift, certain, and unerring. — Few rules, rigidly enforced. 
— Forbidden activities must meet with unfailing correction. — 
The decisive " coup " as a means of insuring initial order. — Illus- 
tration of the decisive coup. — The principle of persistence. — 
Where direct coercive measures are " indicated " : (a) The indulged 
or spoiled school. — (b) The school in rebellion. — (c) Willful dis- 
obedience. — (d) Malicious mischief : (1) " Horse-play " at fire- 
drills. — (2) Maltreatment and hazing. — (3) Petty theft. — 
(4) Vandalism. — (5) Insolence and insult. — Interference from 
without as a handicap to effective discipline. — The importance of 
publicity in cases of interference and dictation. — The principle 
of individual treatment. — The supervision of study and assembly 
rooms as illustrating the principle of individual treatment. — 
Questions and exercises 131 

CHAPTER X 

COERCION THROUGH REWARDS AND PENALTIES 

The psychology of rewards and penalties: (a) The principle 
of direct association of reward or penalty with approved or con- 
demned conduct. — (b) The relative efficiency of pleasant and 
unpleasant consequences in modifying behavior. — (c) The disci- 
pline of the disagreeable in education. — Factors conditioning 
the efficiency of penalties. — Questions and exercises . . . 164 



CONTENTS Xlll 



CHAPTER XI 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT AND THE REACTION 
AGAINST IT 



PAGE 



The decline of physical coercion in American education. 
Why actual physical coercion is disappearing: {a) The magni- 
tude of the school system suggests power and authority. — 
(b) The development of special schools [and reformatories for 
incorrigibles. — (c) The feminization of the teaching population. 

— (d) The development of humanitarian ideals, the most impor- 
tant factor. — The specific reaction against corporal punishment : 
{a) Universality of corporal punishment in former times. — 
(b) The decline of corporal punishment as a penalty under civil 
and military law. — (c) The universality of corporal punishment 
in the older schools. — The older severity sanctioned by the older 
ideals. — (d) The evolution of the conception of punishment: 

(1) The instinctive basis ; vindictive or retributive punishment. — 

(2) The ideal of justice and the idea of proportionate punish- 
ment. — (3) The humanitarian ideal and the idea of reformatory 
punishment. — (4) The final stage : the idea of prevention of 
misconduct as displacing the need for punishment. — (<?) The 
development of new prejudices from the operation of these ideals. 

— Difficulties involved in reconciling the newer ideals of punish- 
ment with existing necessities : {a) Leniency and disrespect for 
law. — {b) Leniency in school discipline as a possible factor in 
the increase in crime. — The place of corporal punishment in 
present-day education : (a) The older order should not be rees- 
tablished. — (b) The right to inflict corporal punishment should 
be reserved to the school authorities with adequate safeguards 
against its abuse. — (c) Where corporal punishment is " indi- 
cated." — (d) Suggestions for inflicting corporal punishment 
under these conditions. — Questions and exercises . . . 170 



CHAPTER XII 

CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL PENALTIES 

Conditions which must be fulfilled by a school penalty that is to 
be thoroughly consistent with present-day ideals. — Contemporary 
penalties : (a) " Solitary treatment." — (b) Satiation as a penalty. 



XIV CONTENTS 

PAGE 

— (c) Rebukes and scoldings. — (d) Keeping after hours. — 
(e) " Keeping in " at recess. — (/) Demerit systems. — Why de- 
merit systems are usually ineffective. — (g) The withdrawal of 
privileges. — (h) Conferences with parents. — (?) Suspension. 

— (J) Reporting cases of discipline to the principal. — The dan- 
gers of weak sentimentalism in doctrines of discipline. — The 
place and limits of leniency in discipline. — Summary. — Ques- 
tions and exercises 198 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE TROUBLESOME TYPES 

Problem of the chapter. — Restatement of the functions of dis- 
cipline. — Distinction in law between a crime and a vice. — An- 
alogous distinction in the case of school offenses. — The trouble- 
some types : Advantages of classifying troublesome cases under 
types. — Tentative classification : (a) The stubborn pupil. — 
(b) The haughty pupil. — (c) The self-complacent pupil. — 
(d) The irresponsible pupil. — (e) The morose pupil. — (/) The 
hypersensitive pupil. — (g) The deceitful pupil. — {k) The 
vicious pupil. — Questions and exercises 216 

CHAPTER XIV 

DISCIPLINE AND THE DOCTRINE OF INTEREST 

Dangers of basing a theory of discipline solely upon the doc- 
trine of interest. — At the same time, the close connection be- 
tween interest and efficiency must be recognized. — The naive 
doctrine of interest lends a specious sanction to the lines of least 
resistance. — The conditions under which an effective interest is 
engendered : the illusory character of immediate interest shown 
in {a) The phenomena of the "warming-up " period. — (b) The 
phenomena of the " practice " curve. — (c) The importance of 
familiarity and repetition in artistic appreciation. — Wider appli- 
cations of the principles of familiarity and repetition. — Dangers 
of immediate interests in determining vocational choices. — Sig- 
nificance of vocational guidance. — Mental growth comes through 
overcoming obstacles. — The " travail " of mental growth. — The 
relation of discipline to mental growth. — Questions and exercises 238 



SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 



SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

CHAPTER I 

What is Meant by a Well-Disciplined School? 

It is a paradox of the well-disciplined school that 
" discipline " is conspicuous by its absence. If an in- 
telligent observer, honestly reporting a visit to a school, 
makes no reference to its discipline, one may be fairly 
confident that the school is " well-disciplined. " 

Ideals of what constitutes good discipline are subject 
to change. They have, indeed, changed very radically 
within the last two or three decades. The intelligent 
observer of fifty years ago, applying to our present- 
day schools the ideal of discipline then current, would 
criticize them as badly disciplined; and the observer 
of to-day, looking in on an old-time school, would have 
his attention attracted by various phenomena of dis- 
cipline that our grandfathers would have overlooked 
as quite normal. The silence, the rigidity of posture, 
and the precision of movement would impress him (if 
he were a thoroughly orthodox modern schoolman) 
most unfavorably. 

But the marked change that has come about in the 
ideal of school discipline is something deeper and more 



2 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

fundamental than these contrasts suggest. The older 
ideal of discipline looked sharply to externals ; the new 
ideals look below the surface. The older standards 
rested comfortably upon the more superficial symptoms 
of obedience, order, and industry ; the modern standards 
probe into the motives of obedience, order, and industry. 
The older standards had regard primarily for the physical 
attitude of the pupil toward the school and toward the 
teacher; the modern standards have regard primarily 
for the mental attitude of the pupil toward his work and 
toward those who work with him. 

The Well-Disciplined School is Dominated by a 
" Fashion of Good Order." — The essential characteristic 
of the present-day well-disciplined school has been 
identified with many different qualities. Some assert 
that the most important feature of such a school is the 
interest of the pupils in their work, or their absorption in 
problems that appeal to them. Others would lay large 
emphasis upon the spirit of cooperation among the 
pupils and between teacher and pupils. Still others 
would speak of sympathy as the dominant character- 
istic. There is justification for the use of any one of 
these terms in describing the well-disciplined school. 
Such a school is likely to be marked by the interest of 
pupils in their work; by their aggressive attack upon 
problems ; by a spirit of cooperation ; and by sympathy. 
Perhaps if any two qualities are essentially character- 
istic of the well-disciplined school, the existence of a 
spirit of cooperation on the part of the pupils and a 



THE WELL-DISCIPLINED SCHOOL 3 

quick and intelligent sympathy on the part of the 
teacher should be accorded first choice. 

The relative merits of these and other terms, however, 
need not trouble us unduly at the present point of the 
discussion. What is needed here is an expression that 
will enable us most clearly to formulate the immediate 
or near-lying problem of school discipline, and for this 
purpose there are many advantages in using the much- 
abused term "fashion." For the present, then, we shall 
think of the well-disciplined school as one in which the 
" fashion " or " mode " of good order, courteous be- 
havior, and aggressive industry has been firmly estab- 
lished. 

The Meaning of Fashion. — The word " fashion " 
is employed in everyday speech to refer almost exclu- 
sively to matters of dress ; and yet, even in this narrow 
reference, it names a force that has a powerful influence 
over human conduct. Inevitably, the individual will 
act in most matters in accordance with group standards 
and group sanctions. He will follow the prevailing 
" mode," not only in his dress, but in his interests, 
his diversions, and his opinions. Fashion is not the 
greatest or the noblest force in life, but it is a force that 
dominates most individuals in some of their activities, 
and some people in most of their activities. 

There is a customary use of the term " fashion " that is 
likely to be confusing in this connection. 1 When a "style" 

1 The term is, indeed, employed by sociologists in different ways. 
Ross {Social Psychology, New York, 1908, ch. vi) emphasizes fashion as 



4 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

of dress, or a type of sport or recreation, or a mode of belief, 
is new and followed by a few, although rejected by the many, 
it is said to be a "new fashion" ; the normal individual will 
be likely not to "follow the fashion" and perhaps he will 
plume himself not a little on the "independence" that he has 
thus asserted. As a matter of fact, the new style is distinctly 
not the "fashion" ; it is rather a " fad " ; it does not become 
the fashion until it has been generally accepted; and those 
who are really "independent," — who really refuse to follow 
fashions, — are the innovators. Whether such independence 
is a virtue or a vice or neither, — whether it is praiseworthy 
or blameworthy or indifferent, — depends upon the exigencies 
of the particular instance. The point of emphasis in the 
present connection is that the school virtues of obedience, 
order, and industry may be made matters of fashion among 
the pupils; that is, the pupils take these things "for 
granted," just as the normal adult takes for granted hats and 
coats and vests and shoes, or breakfast, dinner, and supper. 
They are not questioned, but are matters of course, — seldom 
obtruding themselves upon the consciousness of those who 
make up the social group as in any sense raising an issue, or 
demanding a choice from two or more possibilities of conduct. 

A fashion, then, means for us in the following chap- 
ters a type of conduct that has been sanctioned and 
accepted and " taken for granted " by a large propor- 
tion of the social group, — by so large a proportion that 
those failing to act conformably with the dominant mode 

springing " from the desire to individualize one's self from one's fellows." 
Herbert Spencer, on the other hand, emphasized fashion " as a form of 
social regulation analogous to constitutional government as a form of 
political regulation." It is in this latter meaning that we are employ- 
ing the term. 



THE WELL-DISCIPLINED SCHOOL 5 

of conduct feel out of harmony with the group as a 
whole, — feel, indeed, the powerful pressure of the 
group (exerted, perhaps, quite unconsciously) to bring 
them into harmony with the majority. The primary 
problem of school discipline is to insure the operation of 
this powerful force toward the end for which the school 
exists. 

An Illustration of Fashion in School Discipline. — The 
" best disciplined " school that the writer has ever seen 
was in charge of a principal who had worked for six years 
to make the collective will of the pupil-body give its 
sanctions to good order, courteous behavior, and aggres- 
sive effort. Interest in school work and cooperation with 
the teachers had become distinct fashions. So powerful 
was the force thus generated and directed that the 
superintendent not infrequently transferred to this school 
pupils who had got beyond control in other schools of the 
city. Recalcitrant elsewhere, these pupils often settled 
at once into the dominant fashion of order and industry. 
The spirit of the social group seized them irresistibly. 
The social rewards which, in other schools, sanctioned 
disobedience, willful disorder, and idleness, went in this 
school to more laudable types of conduct; and the 
normal boy, craving the good will and the admiration 
of his fellows, sought these prizes through the only 
means that could procure them. To this school, also, 
teachers who had failed elsewhere were sometimes sent 
in order that they might regain their self-confidence and 
find themselves anew under the favorable conditions 



6 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

there existing. Not all of the recalcitrant pupils, of 
course, succumbed to the powerful group influence ; and 
not all of the teachers were able to undo the mischief of 
their earlier failures; but the mortality in both cases 
was surprisingly low. 

The Meaning of Discipline. — In the preceding para- 
graphs the word " discipline " has been used in the sense 
in which it is commonly employed in the discussion of 
classroom management. It is essential at the outset, 
however, to have a fairly clear idea of the field that the 
discussion will cover ; hence it will be well to formulate 
a tentative definition which will attempt to make explicit 
the problems that the teacher gathers together under 
the general term, " discipline. " 

Etymologically " discipline " comes from the same 
Latin root that gives us the word " disciple," and his- 
torically the problem of discipline has been to bring the 
impulses and conduct of the individual into harmony with 
the ideas and standards of a master, a leader, or a teacher. 
Military discipline has meant a type of training that 
would make a group of individuals instantly responsive 
to the will of the commander. Instantaneous obedience 
to commands, and precision of movement in response 
to certain signals, have been the ends which military 
discipline has sought. And school discipline meant for 
a long time a quite similar subservience of the individual 
will to the will of the teacher. 

Changing ideals of education, however, and the devel- 
opment of a philosophy of life which recognizes the funda- 



THE WELL-DISCIPLINED SCHOOL 7 

mental nature of individual rights, have combined to 
transform rather radically the meaning of discipline as 
a phase of the educative process. Under the stimulus 
of the democratic ideal, the notion of the subservience 
of the masses to the will of a master or a monarch has 
become repugnant. This does not mean that the neces- 
sity for discipline has passed, or that the factor of repres- 
sion and control can be eliminated. It simply means 
that the point of view has shifted. The directive force 
of the master's or the monarch's will has been replaced 
in the theory of democracy by the directive force repre- 
senting the collective will of the people. That this ideal 
of democratic theory is not thoroughly realized in the 
actual working out of democratic government is obvious ; 
but few would deny that a large step in advance has been 
taken by recognizing in the established forms and consti- 
tutions of government the principle of the collective will, 
— even though it be quite true that strong individuals 
still dominate in large part the development of demo- 
cratic societies, and often originate the opinions and judg- 
ments that later became crystallized in law and custom. 
It is clear, however, that the social group which con- 
stitutes the school cannot in every way duplicate the 
conditions existing in adult society. The school must 
continue to resemble, in many ways, the older order 
in which a single individual imposed his will upon the 
group, and the conception of school discipline must con- 
tinue to reflect some measure of arbitrary dominance 
and repression. This is made inevitable by the imma- 



8 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

turity of the pupils, and by the necessity of bringing them, 
through a process of training, to the point where they 
can appreciate the nature and limitations of individual 
freedom. But the newer conception of school dis- 
cipline, while it recognizes the difference between an 
immature social group and an adult social group, has 
been modified in many important ways by the democratic 
ideal. It has recognized the value of having the school 
life represent from the very outset, and increasingly 
with the increased maturity of the pupil body, the condi- 
tions of self-government and of the exercise of individual 
freedom checked by responsibility to the group as a whole. 
While the conduct of the child must be brought into 
harmony with the ideals of the teacher (which in turn 
represent the ideals of that larger society for participa- 
tion in which the child is being prepared), the modern 
conception of discipline would bring the child as rapidly 
as possible to the point where he will recognize the neces- 
sity of repression, and see clearly that the demands made 
upon him, and the limitations placed upon his conduct, 
are really dictated by something more fundamental than 
the arbitrary will of those in authority. 

The newer conception of discipline, in other words, 
recognizes that the measures which the school must 
take to control its pupils should serve as far as may be 
to illustrate the basic necessity for law and order in a 
civilized society ; and it recognizes that these measures 
should be administered wherever possible in such a way 
that the individual will feel them as dictated, not by the 



THE WELL-DISCIPLINED SCHOOL 9 

whims of those in authority, but by the necessities of 
the work that is undertaken and by the welfare and 
needs of the social group. 

There remains, however, a certain meaning of the 
word discipline which is somewhat independent of social 
implications. Not only must the group be protected 
from the impulses of the individual; and not only 
must the necessity for this protection appeal with com- 
pelling force to all; but the individual must from one 
point of view be protected against himself. The service 
which a routine or regimen of disciplinary measures may 
render in developing the important art of self-control 
cannot be overlooked. It is true that society has set a 
high sanction upon self-control very largely because the 
self-mastery of each individual is the clearest guarantee 
that he will not run amuck of social restraints and con- 
ventions. But, viewed from the point of view of in- 
dividual welfare alone, it is obvious that self-mastery 
is equally important. It is through the discipline of 
childhood and youth that the individual may most 
readily be taught to suppress momentary desire for the 
sake of a remote end or goal. It is through systematic 
discipline in this sense of the word that he may be led 
to appreciate the highest values that life holds. Generally 
speaking, it is the primitive, untrained, undisciplined 
mind that follows the behest of transitory impulse 
through the seductive lanes of least resistance. In any 
case, the only known means of counteracting this primi- 
tive tendency is to acquaint the child, from an early age, 



IO SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

with the meaning of persistence, sustained effort, and 
an occasional sacrifice of the desires of the moment; 
and this can be done only through a salutary regimen of 
sympathetic but rigorous discipline. 

Summary : The Functions of Discipline. — The mean- 
ing of school discipline, then, may be formulated as 
three related and yet somewhat distinct functions : 

i. The creation and preservation of the conditions 
that are essential to the orderly progress of the work 
for which the school exists. 

2. The preparation of the pupils for effective partici- 
pation in an organized adult society which, while grant- 
ing many liberties, balances each with a corresponding 
responsibility, and which, while allowing to each in- 
dividual much freedom in gratifying his desires and 
realizing his ambitions, also demands that the individual 
inhibit those desires and repress those ambitions that are 
inconsistent with social welfare. 

3. The gradual impression of the fundamental lessons 
of self-control, especially through acquainting the pupil 
with the importance of remote as contrasted with im- 
mediate ends, and through innumerable experiences 
which will lead him to see that persistence and sustained 
effort bring rewards that are infinitely more satisfying 
than can be attained by following the dictates of momen- 
tary desire. 

The Problem of the Unruly School. — It is in the 
schools where disorder, discourteous behavior, and lack 
of aggressive effort are the fashion that the problem of 



THE WELL-DISCIPLINED SCHOOL II 

discipline becomes of the greatest significance; for in 
these schools otherwise normal pupils are assimilating 
the most unfortunate standards and gaining the very 
worst type of preparation for later life. And such 
schools, while undoubtedly less numerous in proportion 
to the total number of schools than they were twenty 
years ago, are still all too frequently found in our coun- 
try to-day. In well-organized systems where super- 
vision is constant and usually efficient, these schools 
may be quickly discovered and their faults corrected. 
But in the smaller communities and in the country dis- 
tricts where the teaching population in general is im- 
mature, transient, and inadequately trained, and where 
supervision is necessarily infrequent, these breeding 
places of twisted standards and evil habits may easily 
exist year after year with little attempt at correction. 
Indeed, it is not infrequent to find these unruly schools 
" taken for granted." Teachers and parents have be- 
come so thoroughly accustomed to the unfortunate 
attitude' of the pupils that it is accepted as a matter of 
course. 

The preceding discussion has aimed primarily to in- 
dicate what is meant by the term " fashion " and to 
suggest its important bearing upon the chief problem 
with which the following pages will be concerned. It 
will now be our task to follow out some of the implica- 
tions of this point of view. The specific problem is this : 
Given a school in which the unfortunate fashion of dis- 
order, discourteous behavior, scamped work, and lack 



12 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

of aggressive effort has become established, how may 
this unfavorable attitude be transformed into one of the 
opposite type? How, in short, can an effective fashion 
of good order, courteous behavior, and aggressive indus- 
try be established? 

Questions and Exercises 

i. What features of a school that is well-disciplined as 
measured by modern standards would be inconsistent with 
the older ideals of school discipline? What features of the 
older type of school discipline are inconsistent with the modern 
ideals ? 

2. Give examples of standards of conduct that are " taken 
for granted " by the adult social group in your community. 

3. How would you determine in inspecting a classroom 
whether good order, industry, and a respect for the rights of 
others had been made matters of "fashion"? 

4. Contrast effective school discipline with the effective 
discipline of a military company. What points of similarity 
and what points of difference would you emphasize ? 

5. In connection with the three general functions or pur- 
poses of school discipline, name three common practices that 
aim primarily to fulfill the first function. Three that are 
concerned chiefly with the second and third. 

6. Can you think of measures that might effectively meet 
the demands of the first function, but which would be incon- 
sistent with the second or third? 

7. Would you treat failure to do assigned work as an offense 
against the school (that is, as inconsistent with the welfare of 
the group), or simply as an offense of the individual against 
himself? If both points of view are justified, which is the 
more significant in a case of this kind ? 



THE WELL-DISCIPLINED SCHOOL 13 

8. Would you justify disciplinary (or corrective) measures 
in the following case and, if so, upon what basis ? A pupil 
who is required by the poverty of his family to deliver papers 
in the morning and who is, consequently, deprived of the 
normal amount of sleep, becomes cross and troublesome in 
school, neglecting his lessons and indulging in various types 
of mischief. 



(C 



CHAPTER II 

The Unruly School : Its General Causes 

The Characteristic Symptoms of the Unruly Spirit. — 

We shall start, then, with a school in which the wrong 
fashion " has become firmly established. A most 
unfortunate spirit, antagonistic to order and inimical 
to effort, dominates the pupils as a body. They are 
openly disrespectful to those in authority. Perhaps 
they sit sullenly in their classes, answering questions 
in monotones and monosyllables, only inertly attentive 
to the work in hand. They nudge each other when the 
teacher is not looking; indulge in smirks, giggles, and 
guffaws as the occasion seems to warrant ; groan audibly 
when tasks are assigned; and, in general, indulge in 
that form of misbehavior which, for want of a better 
term, may be dubbed " smart-aleckism." At the close 
of the recitation, they either saunter disdainfully or 
rush pell-mell back to their seats, — or, in a depart- 
mental school, back to the study or assembly room. 
In the " lines," they are mischievous; on the play- 
ground they are defiantly rough, self-consciously bois- 
terous, and intentionally rude. On the street they 
may hoot and jeer at strangers and " call names " at 
the teachers passing on their way to and from school. 

14 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL 1 5 

Nor are the symptoms of a thoroughly unruly school 
limited to these collective manifestations of a defiant 
attitude. The individual pupil, taken to task by the 
individual teacher, will be sharp and insolent, or sullen 
and secretive. He will pretend not to hear questions 
and commands, loitering when requested to come quickly, 
dawdling over his tasks with an air of willfully inviting 
trouble. For scamped work, he will be ready with 
plausible excuses; against charges of carelessness or of 
misconduct he will assume the air of injured innocence. 

It should be remembered that we are dealing here by 
definition and hypothesis with a school made up of boys 
and girls, otherwise quite " normal," who are governed 
by the wrong type of group standards ; we are not deal- 
ing with mental or moral defectives. The pupils may 
come from good homes, and in these homes they may 
be fairly representative of normal, well-behaved, well- 
mannered children. But the moment that they enter 
the atmosphere of this unruly school, they are trans- 
formed literally into beings of another species ; and the 
atmosphere of the school is not to be spatially limited ; 
it extends to all situations in which the " school atti- 
tude " dominates the pupil. 

The Causes of the Unruly School. — The first ap- 
proach to the problem at issue, — the problem of reform- 
ing this unfortunate spirit, — lies naturally in a search 
for the causes that commonly lie back of the situation 
to be remedied. By hypothesis, the attitude of the 
pupils is general; of course, there are conspicuous 



1 6 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

exceptions, for in the worst situations one will find 
individual pupils who are docile and tractable; but 
these often serve only to intensify the difficulties of 
the problem, for they are seldom leaders and the rewards 
that go to them for their good behavior simply stimulate 
their less docile fellows to renewed efforts at trouble- 
making. They set negative fashions, so to speak, 
because they are negative forces in the collective life 
of their juvenile community. Generally speaking, then, 
little help can be expected from these individual 
exceptions. 

General Causes : (a) Harsh and Unsympathetic Treat- 
ment. — Of the possible causes of the unruly school, 
two may be cited first as probably more frequently 
operative than all others combined. One is careless, 
unsympathetic, sometimes even brutal treatment at the 
hands of teachers and principals who have become 
hardened through failure, and who teach school, as it 
were, " from hand to mouth." That is, they preserve 
a sufficient measure of order to keep from actual dis- 
missal, and yet are never able to generate enthusiasm 
over their work. Schools of this type are likely to 
exist in decadent city systems, where political influence 
governs appointments and ties the hands of adminis- 
trative officers. These officers, indeed, not infrequently 
settle into the attitude of acquiescence in the lack of 
morale which characterizes the teaching force. Like 
the teachers themselves, they work from hand to mouth, 
reasonably content if each succeeding year finds them 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL 1 7 

still holding their thankless offices, the recipients of 
a meager but still unearned wage. 

As antecedents to conditions of this sort, one may 
all too frequently uncover tragedies of blighted hopes 
and decayed ambitions that would stimulate the pen 
of a Dickens or a Hugo. Men and women who have 
entered upon the work of teaching or of administration 
with an enthusiastic recognition of its possibilities and 
responsibilities have found themselves, when it is too 
late to change, fettered to a system that is cankered 
with political corruption, or held upon the lowest plane 
of efficiency by the inertia of a decadent community. 
Lacking the ability or the prestige to assume aggressive 
social leadership for the improvement of conditions 
they have been held to the wheel of routine until all of 
the spirit has been crushed from them. 

Occasionally into such a system comes a superintend- 
ent with the power of leadership and with ideals of 
progress. But the decadence is often too far advanced 
to permit of regeneration. The entire school organiza- 
tion is infected with the virus ; the older employees, 
secure in their appointments through long years devoted 
assiduously to keeping their " fences " in repair, habitu- 
ated through their experience to the policy of doing the 
least work for a living wage, respond to the stimulus 
of reform with a deadening lack of interest or with re- 
actionary conspiracies and cabals. The new superin- 
tendent may strive to remedy the situation, but finding 
the task beyond his strength, he too may sink to the 



1 8 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

level of toleration and passive acquiescence which will 
soon lapse into somnolent indifference. 

It is not the purpose of the present discussion to dwell 
upon the grave social dangers which inhere in situations 
of this sort. Obviously what is needed in such cases 
is a profound awakening of the community to its respon- 
sibilities. The evil here is community indifference, 
and can be effectively met only by community stimu- 
lation. But two or three alert and progressive teachers 
serving in such a community can do much to show the 
need for such a reform by making their own classrooms 
so radically different from the average in the community 
that the contrast will compel a recognition of the evils. 
This, we take it, rather than aggressive outside prop- 
aganda, is the field in which the classroom teacher 
can render the greatest service. And in the arid deserts 
represented by these decadent systems, one not infre- 
quently finds oases of efficiency that could well stand 
as models of classroom service in any community. This 
is only another way of saying that the classroom teacher, 
even though subjected to the handicap of serving in a 
decadent system, can yet fulfill his or her own responsi- 
bilities in an effective way, and create a school spirit 
that will not be without a salutary influence upon the 
community as a whole. 

The difficulties are numerous and onerous, but they 
are not insuperable. Perhaps the most serious is the 
powerful social pressure that comes from the teaching 
group as a whole, — a type of pressure common in some 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL 1 9 

labor organizations in which work that is above the 
average in efficiency is looked upon as inconsistent with 
the standards of the craft, — as an expression of dis- 
loyalty to one's fellow workers. Loyalty is a most 
important virtue, and must be listed among the prime 
requisites of a system of craft or professional ethics. 
But no craft or profession can permanently endure if 
its standards are inimical to public welfare; and such 
is surely the case when " loyalty " to one's fellow crafts- 
men precludes the highest possible development and 
application of individual skill. 

Inadequate supervision is often a prime cause of this 
unprogressive, hand-to-mouth attitude of the teach- 
ing staff, quite apart from the cooperation of stultifying 
political or social factors. Teachers who must do their 
work without the stimulus of tangible and direct respon- 
sibility for disciplinary conditions may easily acquire 
habits of harshness, severity, and unsympathetic control 
that will easily give rise to a negative attitude of the 
pupil body toward the school and its work. And along 
with too little supervision in this connection must cer- 
tainly be listed too much supervision of the wrong sort, 
— the nagging and querulous faultfinding that incites 
the teacher to gain the desired results by a reapplication 
to his pupils of the same nagging and faultfinding 
methods. Thus a school system that would seem from 
the outside to be admirably organized and most care- 
fully supervised may reveal innumerable centers of 
disaffection. 



20 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

(b) Indulgence and Weakness of Control. — A second 
general cause of the unruly school is quite the opposite 
of that just discussed. It may be summed up in the 
one word, " indulgence." Here there is no harshness, 
no severity. Sympathy may be abundant, but it is 
of the wrong variety; it finds erroneous expressions 
in permitting lapses from good order to go un- 
noticed, in tolerating discourteous conduct, and in 
accepting scamped and careless work. Like the spoiled 
child in the indulgent home, the pupil group becomes 
overconscious of its own demands and gradually passes 
to the point of looking upon privileges as rights. The 
pupils may even assume a disdainful attitude toward the 
authority of the school and of the teachers, acting under 
the sincere belief that, in the school as in an organization 
of adults, all forms of government are unjust that do 
not rest upon the consent of the governed. 

Back of this condition there is likely to be a crude 
philosophy of discipline held by those in authority or by 
influential individuals in the community. Indeed, to 
harmonize the practical necessities of child discipline with 
the principles of individual liberty is not an easy task, 
and those who approach this task with an emotional 
bias are quite likely to overshoot the mark. The ten- 
dency to solve intricate and fundamental problems by 
the nonchalant application of half truths and emotional 
shibboleths is all too common among social reformers, 
especially among those whose efforts must, from lack of 
training and experience, be decidedly amateurish. The 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL 21 

interest of the people in school work ought to be en- 
couraged in every way, but the government of large 
masses of children is a quite different problem from the 
government of two or three children in the home (cer- 
tainly vastly different from the government of one 
child, and it is from experience so limited as this that 
some of the most astounding suggestions for school 
reform frequently emanate). The management of a 
classroom of thirty or forty children or the management 
of a large pupil group aggregating from five hundred to 
two thousand immature souls is a special problem de- 
manding specialized ability. It is not a problem with 
which amateurs can safely experiment. 

There are also certain tendencies of a widely preva- 
lent type which intensify the difficulties here suggested. 
The general attitude of the public both in America and 
abroad toward disciplinary measures has been radically 
transformed within the last two or three decades. As 
was stated in the preceding chapter, ethical standards 
have changed. Individual development and individual 
self-realization are ideals that have a wide and growing 
currency. The reaction against coercive methods of 
government finds a concrete expression in the demand 
that coercive measures be minimized in school practice. 
The right of the child to be well fed, well housed, and 
well taught easily suggests his right to work out his 
individual desires and impulses, untrammeled, so far as 
possible, by adult repression and control. 

The large element of worth that inheres in this doc- 



22 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

trine of individual rights should not blind one to the 
iniquities that may result from attempting suddenly to 
transform the government of the school consistently with 
its tenets. Individualism and collectivism have still 
many hard and knotty problems to compromise before 
the proper balance is struck; and, if we are not 
mistaken, some of these problems are centered in the 
government of the people's schools. We shall have 
occasion to revert to this problem in a later discussion. 
In the present connection, it is enough to recognize that 
the attitude of disrespect for authority upon the part of 
the pupil has sometimes been effectually if not de- 
liberately encouraged by the propaganda that has been 
undertaken to better the conditions of child life and to 
conserve child welfare. 

A typical example of what well-meaning reformers may do 
quite unintentionally to pervert the attitude of children 
toward the authority of the law is to be found in the following 
quotation attributed to Judge Lindsey : 1 

"In dealing with the problem of crime in youth, we shall 
make progress just in proportion as we appreciate the ab- 
surdity of limiting our remedies to the court, the jailer, and 
the hangman. Our plea for public playgrounds is a plea for 
justice to the boy. We are literally crowding him off the 
earth. We have no right to deny him his heritage, but that 
is just what we are doing in nearly every large city in this 
country, and he is hitting back, and hitting hard, when he 
does not mean to, while we vaguely understand and stupidly 
punish him for crime. Why shouldn't he rebel? The amaz- 
ing thing is that he is not worse than he is." 

1 Quoted in Journal of Education (Boston), Oct. 31, 1912. 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL 23 

We have strong faith in Judge Lindsey's sincerity, and a 
deep appreciation for the fine altruism expressed in the above 
paragraph. And yet the quotation implies a specious argu- 
ment that has already worked mischief in school management, 
whatever may have been its influence in civil government. 
Why shouldn't the boy rebel? The situation oppresses him. 
So the industrial situation oppresses many people. Shall we 
encourage them for this reason to play fast and loose with 
the law of property? The marriage contract oppresses some 
people. Shall we indorse the doctrine of free love? Our 
system of import duties is far from equitable. Shall we 
palliate smuggling ? 

It is safe to say that the unfortunate disciplinary 
conditions in some schools may be traced to the prev- 
alence of the fallacious reasoning that is likely to follow 
from the hasty acceptance of half truths regarding indi- 
vidual rights. The operation of this factor is not so 
frequently a cause of the unruly school as is the harsh, 
careless, and unsympathetic treatment referred to 
above. Its seriousness, however, is not adequately 
indicated by the relatively small number of schools in 
which it does operate, for these schools, though few in 
number, are among the most conspicuous, and are 
sometimes looked upon as models which represent the 
last word in educational progress. 

(c) The Inadequate Preparation and Brief Tenure ojT 
Teachers. — The conditions described above are in- 
tensified by the lack of preparation that characterizes 
a large proportion of elementary school teachers, and 
by the brief tenure of service which makes the teach- 



24 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

ing population a constantly changing body. There 
are in the public schools of the United States about 
530,000 teachers. Of these it is safe to say that ap- 
proximately one half (or more than 250,000) are 
twenty-four years of age or under; and approxi- 
mately one fourth (or more than 125,000) are twenty- 
one years of age or under. Thousands of teachers 
are seventeen, eighteen, or nineteen years old. 1 Stated 
in terms of the number of pupils taught, one may say 
with fair confidence in the accuracy of the statement 
that between four and five million boys and girls 
in our public schools receive all of their formal educa- 
tion from teachers who are scarcely more than boys 
and girls themselves. 

The seriousness of this situation may not be apparent 
at first glance. Sometimes one will find competent and 
efficient teachers in this immature group; but the 
chances are strongly against efficiency. A certain 
measure of maturity is essential to sound judgment in 
dealing with children. The adolescent teacher is too 
close to childhood himself or herself adequately to 
appreciate the responsibilities of the trust that a teach- 
ing position involves. And this immaturity of judg- 
ment is likely to find its most unfortunate expression 
in dealing with difficult cases of discipline. One is 
likely to go either to the extreme of severity or to the 
extreme of leniency. The immature teacher has yet to 

1 Computed from the tables in L. D. Coffman's Social Composition 
of the Teaching Population, New York, 191 1. 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL 2$ 

learn a fundamental lesson that is very difficult to mas- 
ter, — the lesson of the " objective attitude," the art of 
reading the personal factor out of the disciplinary situa- 
tion ; 1 and the immature teacher is also particularly 
subject to the foreshortened perspective which fails to 
see beyond immediate consequences. 

The large proportion of young teachers in the public- 
school service suggests at once the near-lying cause of the 
condition, — namely, the brief time during which the 
average teacher remains in service. Of the half million 
teachers in our schools, approximately one fourth are 
new each year. In any case, one cannot be far wrong 
in stating that more than one hundred thousand new 
recruits are needed each year to fill the broken ranks of 
the teaching corps. The " average life " of the elemen- 
tary school teacher is certainly not more than four years, 
and this means that approximately one half of all of those 
entering the teaching service leave this service before 
they have reached their fifth year of experience. One 
fourth of those entering leave at or before the close of 
their second year. 

Disciplinary Efficiency a Product of Experience. — How 
much the ability to secure a reasonable measure of 
order in a classroom depends upon experience it is 
difficult to say, but certain facts justify the statement 
that, during the first three or four years, the average 
teacher is doing amateurish and not expert work. Ruedi- 
ger and Strayer, 2 for example, had 204 elementary 
1 Cf. ch. iv. 2 Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. i, pp. 272 ff. 



26 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

school teachers " ranked " by their principals on the 
basis of " general merit " and found that no teacher with 
less than five years of experience found a place in either 
the first or the second rank; and they found further 
that the most important specific quality making up 
" general merit " in elementary teachers is disciplinary 
ability. Boyce, 1 in a similar study of the qualities of 
merit among high school teachers (involving the "rank- 
ing " of 434 teachers by their principals) found no teacher 
in the first or second rank who had not had at least three 
years of experience; disciplinary ability, although not 
so prominent a factor in general merit here as among 
elementary teachers, still plays an important role. 

Disciplinary Weakness a Frequent Cause of Failure 
among Teachers. — The data represented by these two 
studies are supplemented in a very interesting way by 
three studies of the causes of failure among elementary 
and high school teachers. 

Littler 2 obtained data regarding the causes of failure 
among 676 teachers who were dropped from the teaching 
staff in various types of elementary schools during the 
two years, 1908-1910. The cause most frequently noted 
by the principals and superintendents reporting was 
" weakness in discipline," and this cause accounted for 
more than fifteen per cent of all failures. Buellesfield, 3 
following Littler 's method, has shown that this source 

1 Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. iii, pp. 144 ff. 

2 School and Home Education, March, 191 4. 

8 In an unpublished study on file in the library of the University of 
Illinois. 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL 27 

of failure is more frequently found among immature 
teachers of brief experience than among older teachers 
who have served longer. According to Buellesfield's 
study, weakness in discipline was easily the most 
frequent source of failure among elementary teachers, 
accounting for 15 % of all failures among women teachers 
and 22 % of all failures among men teachers. Miss 
Cleda Moses * studied the causes of failure among high 
school teachers, collecting data regarding 205 cases, and 
discovering that weakness in discipline, while a frequent 
cause of failure, is not proportionately so significant here 
as among elementary teachers, — a conclusion that har- 
monizes with the results of the " merit " studies noted 
above. 

The Alleged Advantages of Youth and Inexperience in 
Teaching. — As has been suggested, youth and inexperi- 
ence are not without their advantages as parts of the 
teacher's equipment. The young teacher, Professor 
O'Shea 2 says, "will make mistakes due to inexperience, 
but he will exhibit an enthusiasm and freshness and 
vigor and optimism which will go far to compensate 
for lack of experience." In so far as disciplinary troubles 
are concerned, however, the balance is decidedly against 
youth and inexperience, even granting the advantages 
to which Professor O'Shea refers. Enthusiasm, vigor, 
freshness, and optimism are not the prerogatives of 
adolescent boys and girls alone. With a reasonable 

1 School and Home Education, January, 191 4. 

2 In Wisconsin Journal of Education, June, 1914, p. 154. 



28 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

degree of maturity, enthusiasm can still be engendered, 
but there is no known way of putting old heads on young 
shoulders. Too many teachers lose their freshness and 
their optimism as they grow in years and experience, 
but this is not entirely the fault of the years or of the 
experience ; it is often due to the unfortunate conditions 
under which their work must be done. 

Questions and Exercises 

i. Add to the list given in the text characteristic symptoms 
of an unruly school spirit. What are the most common ex- 
pressions of this unruly spirit? 

2. In your own school experience, has harshness or indul- 
gence been the more disastrous factor in breaking down, 
or preventing the development of, a wholesome " fashion" of 
good order? 

3. Among the "spoiled" children of your acquaintance, 
what factors operating in homes of the children seem to have 
been primarily responsible for " spoiling " them? 

4. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of a teach- 
ing population one fourth of which is made up of very young 
and inexperienced members. What measures would you 
suggest for insuring a larger proportion of mature and ex- 
perienced teachers in our schools ? 

5. Contrast from your own experience in school the work 
of the inexperienced and the experienced teachers. From 
which group do you now feel that you received the greater 
benefit? In general, which group did you "like" the better? 
Which group had the less trouble with problems of discipline 
and order ? 



CHAPTER III 

The Unruly School: Its Specific Causes 

In the last chapter, some of the general conditions 
which favor the development of an unruly spirit in a 
group of pupils were discussed. It is now essential to 
consider the more specific causes of this spirit and partic- 
ularly the practices of the individual teacher which are 
likely to encourage the unfortunate attitude. 

The Teacher's Personality. — The word " personality " 
is one that is commonly used in discussions of good 
and poor teaching. In some discussions of educational 
problems, indeed, all virtues and vices are referred to 
this factor : everything is due to the " personality " 
of the teacher. Certainly in accounting for successes 
and failures in discipline, the word looms large. It is 
well, therefore, to inquire somewhat minutely into the 
meaning of this important term, and especially to deter- 
mine typical expressions of " personality " that are 
unfavorable to discipline and order. 

It goes without saying that personality as commonly 
used in reference to a teacher's characteristics is a very 
complex thing — so complex that it will perhaps defy any 
attempt toward a helpful analysis. The critics of educa- 
tional theory lay heavy emphasis upon the intangible 
character of this and other factors with which the student 

29 



30 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

of education must deal, maintaining that these factors are 
so complex and so elusive that an attempt to unravel the 
tangles only results in artificial simplifications that do 
more harm than good. Some, indeed, would maintain 
that the factors which go to make one successful or unsuc- 
cessful in teaching are not to be modified by experience 
and training, — that one can never " learn " to teach, 
but must have the teaching instinct as an innate trait. 
These critics, however, overlook the important fact that 
teaching ability does improve with experience; in some 
way or another, the characteristics that make for success 
and efficiency are acquired or " learned." The problem 
of those who train teachers is very largely one of finding 
out what characteristics or capacities need improvement 
and then to arrange some typical experiences that will 
work toward the desired betterment. But in order to 
proceed in this rational way, the factors and qualities 
that have been assumed to be intangible and unanalyz- 
able must be split up into simpler elements. It is useless 
to talk about improving one's " teaching personality ' 5 
unless the ingredients of personality are known. One 
must at least attempt an analysis. 

The Important Elements in the Teacher's Personality. 
— What, then, are the elements of a good teaching per- 
sonality and of a bad teaching personality ? One serious 
attempt has been made to answer this question. F. L. 
Clapp l secured from one hundred experienced school 

1 In an unpublished study on file in the library of the University of 
Illinois. 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL (CONTINUED) 3 1 

superintendents and principals — men who had had wide 
experience in selecting and training teachers — lists of 
the ten specific qualities that, in their opinion, went to 
make up a good teaching personality. As one would 
expect, the replies included a wide variety of these 
specific qualities. In fact, almost every imaginable trait 
or characteristic found a place in the aggregate list. 
Most of these qualities, however, were mentioned by 
only one or two individuals; comparatively few were 
found in all of the separate lists. But there were ten 
qualities which found a place in a large number of lists, 
and these ten in the order of their frequency, were the 
following : 

1. Sympathy. 6. Enthusiasm. 

2. Personal appearance. 7. Scholarship. 

3. Address. 8. Vitality. 

4. Sincerity. 9. Fairness. 

5. Optimism. 10. Reserve or dignity. 

These ten qualities, then, represent the composite 
judgment of one hundred experienced schoolmen as to 
the composition of the " teaching personality." This 
method of analysis, however, gives suggestive but 
scarcely trustworthy results. A superintendent of schools 
always applies his notion of " personality " in " sizing 
up" the qualifications of applicants for teaching posi- 
tions, but the notion that he applies is the result rather of 
a "general impression" than of careful analysis. When, 
therefore, he is asked what he means by personality, he is 



32 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

likely to answer in terms of what, in his opinion, ought 
to be included rather than in terms of what he actually 
has in mind when he applies the notion in choosing 
teachers. 

In order to overcome this tendency, Mr. Clapp re- 
sorted to an ingenious device. He asked one hundred 
forty superintendents and principals to list their six 
best teachers, first in the order of " general teaching 
personality " (ranking as Number One the teacher with 
the best personality, as Number Two the next best, and 
so on), and then to list these same teachers in the order 
of their " sympathy," their " personal appearance," 
and so on through the ten subordinate qualities that his 
first investigation had revealed. In this way, he was 
able to secure what might be termed " unconscious 
analyses " revealing pretty accurately just how these 
ten qualities operated in the actual judgment of super- 
intendents regarding the personalities of their teachers. 

When he had completed the task of equating these 
various rankings, Mr. Clapp found that the specific 
qualities which go to make up the teaching personality, 
as this term is used in judging teachers, stood actually, 
not in the order represented by his first table, but in a 
somewhat different arrangement, as follows : 

i. Address. 6. Fairness. 

2. Personal appearance. 7. Sincerity. 

3. Optimism. 8. Sympathy. 

4. Reserve. 9. Vitality. 

5. Enthusiasm. 10. Scholarship. 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL (CONTINUED) 33 

The important result of this study is the evidence that 
it offers against the fatalistic notion that the important 
factors in the teacher's personality are not improvable 
through the discipline of experience and training. There 
are undoubtedly some individuals who could never 
improve their manner of meeting people (their " ad- 
dress "), and there are others, perhaps, who could never 
make their " personal appearance " more attractive. 
Still others, it is clear, are natural pessimists, and neither 
experience nor training nor inspiration could transform 
their gloom and depression into " optimism " and " en- 
thusiasm." Still others are naturally undignified and 
can have no commanding influence over their fellows. 
They lack " reserve " and can never create it. Some, 
too, are naturally unfair, or weak in vitality, or deficient 
in sympathy. But, after all acknowledgment has been 
made to the fatalists, it must still be admitted that 
most individuals can change and improve these various 
qualities. Knowing what factors " count " in a teaching 
personality, the beginning teacher, under wise supervision, 
may adopt measures that will work what might seem at the 
outset to be little less than a miracle of transformation. 1 

The Qualities of Personality Important in Discipline. — 
It is impossible to say, in the absence of an extended 
investigation, which of the above qualities are most 
important from the standpoint of disciplinary ability. 
It is reasonable to infer, however, that " reserve," " en- 

1 Mr. Clapp found very clear evidence that both experience and 
training had a positive effect in improving the "teaching personality." 

D 



34 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

thusiasm," " fairness/ ' " sincerity," " sympathy," and 
" vitality " are especially significant from this point of 
view. The teacher who is noisy, boisterous, and un- 
dignified is more than likely to incite these qualities in 
his or her pupils. The teacher who lacks enthusiasm 
will probably fail in all phases of his work, but his dis- 
cipline is particularly likely to suffer. Unfairness is a 
notorious stimulus to intentional disorder, and insin- 
cerity is fatal to teaching efficiency at every point. 
Vitality as evidenced by alertness and " energy " is like- 
wise a positive factor in discipline ; of the ten factors in 
the list, it is perhaps the one that is least amenable to 
improvement through systematic training, — although 
where lack of vitality is due to discouragement, mal- 
nutrition, insufficient sleep, overwork, or overworry, 
the remedial measures are certainly at hand. 

Lack of sympathy for childhood is undoubtedly one of 
the prime causes of disciplinary difficulties. It com- 
monly reveals itself in a lack of rapport or mutual under- 
standing. There is, between the teacher and the taught, 
a gulf or chasm that is quite obvious to the experienced 
onlooker. Both teacher and pupil are self-conscious, 
one setting himself over against the other as a natural 
enemy. The condition is frequently well known to 
the teacher, and the consciousness of his failure intensifies 
the seriousness of the situation, making it all but im- 
possible for him to work naturally and spontaneously. 
Troubles consequently " grow upon themselves " ; one 
difficulty gives rise to another; and each adds its in- 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL (CONTINUED) 35 

crement of estrangement to the unfortunate attitude 
already existing. This is not " lack of sympathy " 
if we mean by that phrase an inherent carelessness upon 
the part of the teacher regarding his pupils and their 
progress. It may, indeed, be very far from this. The 
teacher may desire intensely to do his work well; he 
may crave the affection and confidence of his pupils; 
and the fact that affection and confidence do not crown 
his efforts depresses and worries him. 

Where this situation can be remedied (and it is the 
writer's belief that appropriate measures will relieve nine 
cases out of every ten), the treatment first indicated is 
to transform both the attitude of the pupils and the 
attitude of the teacher. The subjective, personal 
feelings of distrust must be broken up and forgotten 
through absorption in objective matters. The various 
means that may be employed toward this end will be 
considered in a later chapter. 1 

What a pupil understands to be a sympathetic teacher is 
important in this connection. W. F. Book 2 collected data 
from 582 high school pupils touching this question. The 
following qualities are given in the order of their impor- 
tance as indicated by the number of times they were men- 
tioned in the replies; the figures in parentheses represent 
the number of "votes" for each group of related qualities : 

i. Kind, forgiving, and generous; or, stated negatively, 
never rude, harsh, sarcastic, or given to ridicule. (144.) 

1 See ch. iv. 

2 " The High School Teacher from the Pupil's Point of View," 
Pedagogical Seminary, September, 1905, pp. 239 ff. 



36 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

2. Pleasant, cheerful, good-natured, happy, jolly, even- 
tempered; or, never cross or unpleasant, never scolded, 
criticized harshly, or continually found fault. (112.) 

3. Patient, considerate, thoughtful of the feelings of his 
pupils, reasonable; not "cranky," over-particular, or un- 
reasonably strict. (104.) 

4. Firm, decisive, business-like, and strict. (59.) 

5. Inspiring, easy to approach. (46.) 

6. Serious, earnest, unassuming, rather dignified, quiet. 
(26.) 

Vacillation or weakness of the will is another trait of 
personality that is a frequent cause of disciplinary 
troubles. This may be incurable, an innate weakness 
of character; but it is often the unfortunate result 
of early failure or of uncertainty upon the part of the 
teacher with regard to his responsibility and his authority. 
The general conditions described in the preceding chapter 
are especially likely to encourage vacillation and gradu- 
ally to weaken the moral stamina of the teacher. When 
a community refuses to support the schools in cases of 
discipline and especially when the adults " side " with 
the pupils against the school authorities, a severe handi- 
cap is placed upon the efforts of the teachers , and those 
who remain firm and persistent are likely to suffer. At 
the same time, an unfortunate premium is placed upon 
those who, through flattery or cajolery, curry favor 
and cultivate " popularity " among pupils and parents, 
thus adding to the burdens of the self-respecting teacher, 
who can never demean himself by practices of this 
type. Or it may be that the schools are in charge 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL (CONTINUED) 37 

of a weak superintendent who is so anxious to safe- 
guard his position that he also takes sides with the 
pupils against the classroom teacher and thus makes 
it very difficult for the latter to enforce reasonable re- 
quirements. In all of these cases, vacillation will be 
encouraged, and the results are fairly certain to spell 
disaster. 

When the vacillation is the result of external condi- 
tions, a mere change in these conditions will commonly 
work a transformation. A little whole-hearted support 
from a superintendent or principal ; one or two success- 
ful experiences in which vigor and firmness have gained 
the desired end ; the renewal of one's self-confidence and 
good spirits by a taste of triumph, — any one of these 
factors may bridge the chasm of failure that seems at 
times to yawn directly at one's feet. The " do-or-die " 
attitude is often not only valuable, but absolutely es- 
sential in cases of this sort. 

And these factors, also, will not be without their 
beneficial influence upon the teacher who is naturally 
weak and vacillating. There are some men and women, 
of course, who have an abnormally intense instinctive 
tendency to yield to a more vigorous personality. 
What McDougall * calls the instinct of " subjection " 
is strongly marked in their original nature. Quite 
naturally and instinctively they fawn and quail when 
threatened. And a strong, vigorous, domineering per- 
sonality is quite likely to be found in a group of 
1 W. McDougall, Social Psychology, London, 1910, pp. 62 ff. 



38 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

children at almost every level of development. Here, 
for example, is a boy small in stature and young in years, 
who has ruled his little world from infancy. He has 
gained confidence in his ability to bring to the point of 
capitulation not only his fellows, but his elders. He has 
learned the large strategic value of vigorous self-assertion. 
A teacher who is naturally weak will just as naturally 
feel the power of this self-assertive and self-confident 
personality, even though it be a child's personality, and 
the tendency to yield will be the more irresistible the 
weaker the teacher. And yet strenuous measures, even 
under these conditions, may bring about a new era in the 
teacher's life. The weakness represents a tendency, a 
" diathesis," which, like an inborn tendency to tuber- 
culosis or insanity, must be met by a process of self- 
discipline more vigorous and more prolonged than the 
normal individual would need to employ. But if hered- 
itary weaknesses of other types can be counteracted by 
appropriate measures, there is no reason to believe that 
an inherited " weakness of the will " may not be similarly 
overcome. And here it is especially comforting to note 
that success " grows upon itself." . 

Procrastination may be looked upon as a specific 
expression of weakness of the will. The young teacher 
is likely to feel uncertain in his judgments of what 
constitutes a lapse from discipline. He is particularly 
likely to overlook the first expressions of a mischievous 
or unruly spirit, hoping that if these are passed by, his 
pupils will later settle down to aggressive work. He 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL (CONTINUED) 39 

lacks firmness in his initial admonitions and directions, 
and consequently misses the best of opportunities for 
getting his administration of the school or the classroom 
started aright. 

With experience the teacher acquires an effective 
skill in " sensing " disturbances and knows almost in- 
tuitively whether this or that expression upon the part 
of his pupils is inimical to good discipline. A great 
many little things are overlooked or neglected, al- 
though not unnoticed, by the expert teacher. The 
beginner is almost certain to misplace the emphasis; 
but, in general, it is safer at the outset to err on the side 
of rigor than on the side of leniency. 

It is the teacher with an inherited tendency to in- 
decision and weak will who is most likely to be ship- 
wrecked through this tendency to let initial disorder pass 
unnoticed. Tlie following case is typical. 

A young woman of twenty-one was a member of the senior 
class in a normal school. She had completed the classwork 
in the academic and professional subjects with a commendable 
record, and was sent to the training school for her semester 
of practice teaching. The superintendent recognized her at 
once as having a "weak" teaching personality. He placed 
her in charge of a fifth-grade section and carefully watched 
her work. She made absolutely no impression upon her 
pupils and the classroom quickly became unmanageable un- 
less a supervisor were present. The student-teacher was 
warned of her defects and of the disastrous consequences that 
impended, but all to no avail. At the end of three or four 
weeks it was necessary to deprive her of her teaching privi- 



40 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

leges. She was placed "on observation" for the remainder 
of the semester, spending most of her time in watching the 
work of two or three very expert teachers, and discussing 
this work with the superintendent. 

At the beginning of the next semester, she was placed in 
charge of another practice section. By dint of strenuous 
supervision, she completed the term of teaching, and at the 
close was given her diploma, although with so many mis- 
givings on the part of the superintendent that he refused to 
recommend her for a position (a type of temporizing that is 
not at all uncommon in teachers' training schools). She 
secured a position upon her own initiative, however. (The 
"stamp" of the normal school enabled her to do this, school 
boards naturally concluding that a diploma from a normal 
school meant an indorsement of teaching ability.) At the 
close of a month her new superintendent told her that it was 
hopeless for her to continue. She spent the remainder of the 
year at home, and secured another position for the following 
year. This position she retained for one semester, being ad- 
vised to resign at the end of that period. She waited another 
half year and then secured a third appointment. She wrote 
to the normal school toward the close of the year "I am going 
to finish the year here, but I shall not have a reappoint- 
ment. ... I know where the trouble is. It is in the way 
I begin the very first week or two, and I have resolved that 
next year, if I am fortunate enough to get another position, 
I will have good discipline the first of the year if I do not do 
any teaching for ten weeks." 

The simple lesson of the " right start " had been 
taught to this teacher before she went into the practice 
school. It was enforced there, and illustrated by her 
initial failures. It was written large across the successive 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL (CONTINUED) 41 

disasters of the following years. The lessons that cost 
so much as this are undoubtedly effective in the end, 
but the price is paid in material that is far too precious 
to be needlessly wasted. 

Ungovemed temper of the " explosive " type represents 
a defect in teaching quite opposite to vacillation and 
procrastination. Here, again, a teacher may be the victim 
of hereditary tendencies that will make this defect 
very difficult to remedy ; but the fatalistic notion that 
quick temper is not amenable to control is just as falla- 
cious as the notion that an inherent tendency to vacilla- 
tion cannot be overcome. From the point of view of 
discipline, the ungoverned temper represents the acme 
of danger ; and the more so, perhaps, because a violent 
display of temper may result in an apparent victory for 
the teacher. That is, the pupils may be cowed into 
submission in a trice and the teacher may be encouraged 
to repeat the operation until it has become a most dis- 
astrous habit. We are confident that these occasional 
triumphs are in no sense a justification for abrogating 
one of the first principles of discipline, — namely, the 
maintenance of a thoroughly objective and judicial 
attitude upon the part of the teacher. 

Professor William Lyon Phelps in his very sensible 
discussion of discipline 1 states the case picturesquely : 

"The teacher should never lose his temper in the presence 
of a class. If a man, he may take refuge in profane solilo- 
quies ; if a woman, she may follow the example of one sweet- 

1 Teaching in School and College, New York, 191 2, p. 23. 



42 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

faced and apparently tranquil girl — go out into the yard 
and gnaw a post ; but there must be no display of rage before ? 
the clear eyes of children. When I taught school, there were 
many times when the indifference, stupidity, flippancy, or 
silliness of the class brought me to such a pitch of rage, that l 
I dared not trust myself to speak. I would clutch the arms 
of my chair, and swallow foam until I felt complete self- 
command ; then I would speak with quiet gravity. The boys 
all saw what was the matter with me, and learned something 
not in the book." 

Tactlessness should undoubtedly be listed as a defect 
of personality, although it does not appear in the group 
of specific qualities collated by Mr. Clapp. In Mr. Lit- 
tler' s investigation, however, it appears as a recognized 
cause of an appreciable proportion of the failures among 
elementary school teachers (between three and four per s 
cent of all the failures reported were ascribed to this 
defect), and it is undoubtedly a contributing cause in 
many cases where failure is reported as due to weak 
discipline. 

Here once more we are face to face with a complex 
factor that must depend in some measure upon native 
tendencies. There are some men and women who are 
almost instinctively diplomatic ; they seem to " sense " 
immediately the elements in a situation that are likely 
to arouse needless antagonism, and to adjust themselves 
to the situation in such a way as to avoid these difficulties. 
Upon the whole, however, while differences in native 
endowment will, here as elsewhere, constitute an element 
of uncertainty in our calculations, it is fairly clear that 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL (CONTINUED) 43 

this ability to " sense " the critical elements in dealing 
with men and women and children grows with experi- 
ence, and it is conceivable that one might analyze the 
processes that are involved and determine just what 
steps are essential to effect a marked improvement. 
By " taking thought " one may certainly learn to avoid 
the grosser errors. 

What are some of the pitfalls of tactlessness that beset 
the path of the young teacher in dealing with disciplinary 
situations? Undoubtedly most of the difficulties of 
this type may be traced to " hurt feelings," — needlessly 
" hurt feelings " we should add, because it is conceiv- 
able that feelings sometimes must be hurt if necessary 
reforms are to be brought about. The teacher will have 
in every class a certain proportion of hypersensitive chil- 
dren, and to deal with these children effectively will be to 
avoid a goodly number of disciplinary difficulties. This 
type of child will be discussed in a later section, 1 and sug- 
gestions will there be made as to the type of treatment 
that experience has shown to be effective. 

But there are general, often habitual, practices that 
are essentially tactless. The storming, blustering atti- 
tude is tactless, and especially the threatening attitude, 
for this simply invites trouble that otherwise never 
would occur. A cardinal rule of school management 
is to have few rules, and these very specific and relent- 
lessly enforced. In general, a rule or a restriction should 
not be enunciated until the need for it has been shown, 

1 See ch. xii. 



44 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

although there are exceptions to this precaution — as, 
for example, when the first snow of the season will tempt 
every normal boy to throw snowballs without due regard 
to the fragile nature of schoolhouse windows or the 
temper of passers-by. 

A prime condition of tactless blunders is the failure 
upon the part of the teacher to get the pupiVs point of 
view regarding apparently trivial and unimportant things. 
Children are inherently jealous ; for the teacher to dis- 
play favoritism in an ostentatious way is to court dis- 
ciplinary disaster, — as well as to commit an injustice 
toward the pupils who receive this undue attention. 
To expect the teacher to have the same measure of 
regard and affection for all of his pupils is to expect 
the impossible, but so far as the expression of this regard 
is concerned, it is not difficult to distribute one's favors 
equitably. 

Tactlessness often expresses itself in failure to take 
advantage of dominant tendencies among the pupils 
in connection with the fulfillment of certain require- 
ments. There arises, of course, an important ethical 
question in this connection : Should the teacher go out 
of his way to make a duty pleasurable ? — -a question 
that we must face when we consider in detail the re- 
lation of discipline to the doctrine of interest. But 
it is safe to say here that many disciplinary difficulties 
can be legitimately avoided by a tactful appeal to in- 
terests and desires. Tom Sawyer, in getting his fellows 
to whitewash the fence, illustrates the type of tactful 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL (CONTINUED) 45 

treatment that is especially effective with children and 
with adolescents. To make a duty appear in the light 
of a privilege may be questioned on ethical grounds, but 
one cannot deny its practical efficacy. 

A five-year-old boy disliked to go to kindergarten at the 
outset. He rebelled strenuously on a certain morning, and 
a troublesome experience seemed to be in prospect. A 
neighbor appeared on the scene. Her daughter, Mary, aged 
four, was to start kindergarten that morning; the mother 
could not take her ; a street-car track was to be crossed, and 
she did not wish her to go unattended ; would Dick — 
But Dick was near by and had heard the conversation. "I'll 
take care of Mary," he said at once, swelling with pride at the 
thought of the responsibility that would be delegated to him ; 
"I shan't let anything hurt her. I'll take care of her." The 
rebellious spirit disappeared in an instant. Taking Mary 
to kindergarten was the privilege that made Dick enthusiastic 
about his own attendance until the initial distaste was over- 
come, and the school, so to speak, attracted him in its own 
right. 

Tactlessness in dealing with parents and with other 
members of the community almost always results in 
weakening the teacher's authority over his pupils, and 
consequently serves to aggravate disciplinary troubles. 
Another recognized rule of school management is never 
to lose one's temper in dealing with parents, no matter 
how great the provocation. One can afford to spend 
much time arid energy in explaining to parents the 
nature and the educational justification of the require- 
ments made by the school, — sometimes to the extent 



46 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

of neglecting one's class work for a half-hour period, 
but one cannot afford to meet an irate parent with 
angry words or to return insult or innuendo in kind. 
Silence and forbearance are shining virtues in desperate 
situations of this type. 

Minor Causes of the Unruly School. — In addition 
to the factors of " personality " discussed in the preced- 
ing sections, there are certain specific conditions that 
have a vital relation to school discipline. Some of these 
are undoubtedly closely concerned with the personality 
of the teacher, but there are good reasons for considering 
them separately inasmuch as they will commonly yield 
to rather simple precautions. 

Mechanized routine is among the most important of 
the conditions to be listed here. Disorder and confusion 
will inevitably grow upon themselves, and in the absence 
of simple rules for the performance of routine tasks, 
duties, and movements, disorder and confusion are in- 
evitable. The writer has emphasized in another place l 
the importance of initiating immediately upon the or- 
ganization of a school or a class the little specific habits 
that will take care of routine matters. If each pupil 
knows at the outset just what he is to do as a matter of 
routine and how he is to do it, many difficulties, other- 
wise serious, will be easily avoided. This is particularly 
true in large schools and in large classes ; but no matter 
how small the school or the class, the teacher will do 
well to bear in mind the advice so admirably expressed 

1 Classroom Management, New York, 1907, ch. iii. 



THE UNRULY SCHOOL (CONTINUED) 47 

by Professor Phelps: "Nothing is too minute or too 
trivial that concerns the great art of teaching." 1 

Reference is here made to such matters as line formation 
(or, where lines are not formed, the orderly passing of the 
pupils to and from their classrooms); the disposal of hats 
and wraps ; passing to and from the blackboard; the 
orderly arrangement of books and materials in desks or cab- 
inets ; posture in sitting at desks ; the movements that are 
essential in changing classes; fire drills; and similar matters. 
Detailed suggestions for organizing these routine phases of 
school activity are given in the writer's Classroom Manage- 
ment, the emphasis being placed upon (i) a careful prelimi- 
nary survey of the conditions before the school is organized to 
determine what phases of routine should be established at 
the outset, and (2) the value of getting the necessary habits 
started on the first day, giving perhaps two or three formal 
exercises in the different movements. 

The teacher's voice is a factor of large importance in 
discipline, and, in spite of the apparent difficulty in 
modifying the " natural " tendencies in speaking, it is a 
factor that is controllable in a measure seldom recognized 
by those engaged in the training of teachers. The 
principal evils to be avoided or counteracted are : (1) the 
shrill, high-pitched, rasping voice ; (2) the unnecessarily 
loud or " noisy " voice ; (3) the inarticulate voice which 
fails to enunciate distinctly; (4) the thin, feeble voice 
which lacks vigor and force; and (5) the monotonous 
voice which lulls pupils to somnolence through lack of 
emphasis. By " taking thought " each one of these 
1 Teaching in School and College, p. 15. 



48 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

defects may ordinarily be remedied, at least in part, — 
and any slightest improvement is a clear gain. The 
" noisy " voice is perhaps the one most inimical to 
order, for, by suggestion, it gives rise to noise and con- 
fusion throughout the classroom. The feeble voice, 
the inarticulate voice, and the monotonous voice are 
usually amenable to treatment through appropriate ex- 
ercises. 

A clear recognition of special responsibility is especially 
important in a large school where disciplinary functions 
must be divided among the various teachers, — each, 
perhaps, taking his or her turn in supervising play- 
grounds, toilet rooms, lunch rooms, and the like ; one 
being delegated (in the high school or the departmental 
grammar school) to look after the debating clubs, another 
the orchestra, another the athletic organizations. There 
is indeed abundant justification in the large school for 
appointing special teachers to devote part of their time 
to such duties as are performed in the large universities 
by the deans of undergraduate men and women. Need- 
less to say, the responsibilities imposed by these various 
types of supervisory service should be balanced by a 
lighter teaching program than falls to the lot of the 
average teacher. There is no condition more deplorable 
than that which is found in many schools where the 
few teachers who are thoroughly competent to take 
responsibility for the nonscholastic functions are over- 
loaded with these duties without a corresponding de- 
crease in their teaching programs. 



the unruly school (continued) 49 

Questions and Exercises 

i. Compare two teachers that you have had in your school 
experience, one with a "strong" personality, the other with a 
relatively "weak" personality. Write down as many traits 
or characteristics differentiating the two as occur to you in 
making the contrast. 

2. Compare especially the methods of discipline employed 
by these two teachers. Which one was the more severe? 
the more relentless in applying standards ? the more likable? 
the more enthusiastic? the more sympathetic? 

3. What evidence can you give to show that a good " teach- 
ing personality" may be acquired by one who, in beginning 
teaching work, is handicapped by a relatively "weak" per- 
sonality ? 

4. In recalling the schoolfellows of your early school days, 
can you find instances of boys or girls who were not very 
forceful among their fellows — who were perhaps "nonen- 
tities " or ciphers in the social group — surprising you later 
by their achievements and attainments? Can you find 
analogous instances on the other side, — natural "leaders" 
who later became " nonentities "? 

5. Compare two individuals of your acquaintance, one of 
whom you would call "strong willed" and the other "weak 
willed." In what characteristics do the sharpest contrasts 
lie ? If you were the weaker, what steps would you take to 
remedy your defects? 

6. Give from your own experience in school instances of 
tactless management upon the part of teachers. Give analo- 
gous instances of tactful management. "Try your hand" 
at a definition of "tact." 

7. What phases of school routine are likely to be sources 
of disciplinary trouble unless steps are taken thoroughly to 
mechanize the necessary movements ? 

E 



50 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

8. Ask an experienced school supervisor whether you have 
a good teaching voice. If you find that it is defective, experi- 
ment with methods of correction. For example, if enuncia- 
tion is faulty, practice reading aloud very slowly ; if the 
voice is "thin" or weak, try the effect of regular breathing 
exercises ; if the voice is "noisy," make an effort to speak in 
a low tone and note the result. 



CHAPTER IV 

Transforming the Unruly School: (^4) The Im- 
portance oe the " Objective" Attitude 

The two preceding chapters have dealt with the con- 
ditions that are likely to give rise to an unruly spirit 
among pupils and students,, and have attempted to 
indicate how some of these conditions may be avoided, 
counteracted, or overcome; how, in other words, the 
development of an unruly spirit may be prevented. 
Prevention is always easier than cure; but there are 
occasions when preventive measures come too late, 
and when efforts of another type are needed. As 
stated in Chapter II, we are assuming the existence of 
a most unfortunate " spirit " among the pupils. We 
are assuming that a bad fashion of disorder, scamped 
work, and disrespect for authority has become fixed 
upon a school, and we shall presently ask how this un- 
favorable attitude of the pupils may be transformed, 
and how a " fashion " of the opposite type established. 
An attempt will then be made to classify some of the 
practices that have been successful in solving this dim- 
cult problem, but first of all an important word needs 
to be said regarding the attitude of the teacher who is 
face to face with a situation of this type. 

Si 



52 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

What is Meant by the Objective Attitude. — The 
words " objective," " impersonal," " detached," may 
be employed to characterize this attitude. The chief 
danger in dealing with a disciplinary situation is that 
the teacher's attitude will be subjective and personal. 
This, at all costs, it must not be. The appropriate 
attitude is quite analogous to that of the physician who 
is treating a serious illness at a critical stage ; it should 
not be analogous to that of the warrior who is waging a 
life-and-death contest with an opposing foe. It may 
be that something akin to military strategy is justified ; 
it may even be that force must be applied; but, in 
either case, the element of personal feeling or animosity 
must be rigorously excluded. To the teacher, the dis- 
ciplinary situation must be as thoroughly impersonal 
as the limitations of human nature will permit; other- 
wise his assumption of authority will involve injustice. 
Even primitive social groups recognize that neither 
party to a personal dispute can safely be intrusted 
with the power to settle it, — or to dictate the penalty 
that shall be imposed upon the other. When the dis- 
ciplinary situation becomes " personal," therefore, the 
teacher has lost his right to dictate terms. 

The objective attitude and the emphasis of the im- 
personal relationship will not preclude sympathy, but 
it will preclude an ineffective emotionalism. The 
physician is far from unsympathetic with his patient, 
but he does not let his sympathy blind his judgment, 
nor does he interpret the stubbornness of the illness 



THE OBJECTIVE ATTITUDE 53 

as an affront to his dignity or a reflection upon his per- 
sonal character. It is rather an opportunity for exer- 
cising his keenest professional judgment and applying 
his most consummate form of technical skill. The 
stubbornness is a challenge to his professional self and 
not to his personal self. To lose his self-confidence and 
his self-mastery would be professional suicide. 

The teacher or the principal who is face to face with 
an antagonistic school, then, will have taken the first 
step toward a successful issue when he reads his own 
personal ego out of the problem. That this is often 
hard to do only intensifies the necessity of doing it. 
The very fact that a group of unruly children will in- 
stinctively do everything in their power to tantalize 
and irritate one who is in authority over them, and 
fail to separate the official from the individual, makes 
redoubled efforts at self-mastery and a maintenance of 
the objective attitude the more essential upon the part 
of the teacher. It is, indeed, extremely difficult not 
to respond personally and subjectively to a situation 
that is continually interpreted by others in a personal 
and subjective way. 1 

Obstacles in the Way of the Objective Attitude. — 
The estrangement between pupils and teacher is not 

1 A teacher writing eighty years ago emphasized the danger of the 
subjective attitude : " I took them [the pupils] all to be young knaves 
at the very opening of school, and made laws accordingly ; and what 
I took them to be, many of them slowly became. They constantly 
watched their opportunity to evade my laws, and I watched my 
opportunity to detect them, and enforce the penalty." (Quoted in 
Annals of Education, Series III, vol. v, 1835, p. 27.) 



54 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

infrequently intensified by the attitude of the public 
toward the work of teaching, which is sometimes so 
unsympathetic as to render the teacher uncomfortably 
self-conscious. One of the problems of education is to 
change public opinion in this regard, and to insure for 
the teacher an effective " professional status." Under 
present conditions, it is hard for the average man to 
view the teacher outside of the classroom as he views 
other normal men and women. The " academic " 
atmosphere seems to cling more closely to the teacher 
in his nonscholastic life than the legal atmosphere clings 
to the lawyer or the commercial atmosphere to the 
business man. The consciousness of this handicap 
tends to make the teacher ill at ease, and this mental 
condition renders difficult a thoroughly objective and 
professional attitude toward his work. 

It is in connection with disciplinary difficulties par- 
ticularly that the handicap of an unsympathetic public 
attitude is likely to be most strongly felt. The serious- 
ness of a disciplinary situation is often unintelligible 
to the layman. Why " mere children " should be the 
cause of so much trouble puzzles him, and he is likely 
to believe the teacher to be inherently weak when, as 
a matter of fact, the situation that is being faced would 
test the tact and wisdom of the keenest intellect and 
the power of the strongest will. Thus the teacher, find- 
ing that the public takes his or her troubles very lightly 
and quite unsympathetically, is likely to brood over 
them in secret, — hiding them from others and even 



THE OBJECTIVE ATTITUDE 55 

attempting an ostrich-like essay at self-deception. One 
result of this is often found in the failure to correct 
offenders against order, and this is serious enough ; but 
another is the mental worry and depression which the 
condition brings about in the teacher himself or herself. 

It is those who suffer in silence that suffer most keenly, 
and if the Freudian conception of mental derangements 
has done nothing else, it has certainly shown the vital 
necessity for getting fears and worries " out of the 
system " through pouring one's troubles into a sym- 
pathetic ear. Not only do thousands of teachers vol- 
untarily leave public school service each year because 
the strain is too severe to be borne, but the proportion 
who break down in service is alarmingly large. Not 
often does the real cause of most of these tragedies get 
into the public press, but an occasional item referring 
to an extreme case may be taken as typical of innumer- 
able cases, perhaps equally serious, that do not result 
in publicity. 

The following editorial from the Journal of Educa- 
tion (Boston) certainly gives one reason for asking 
whether the people are treating as they should the 
teachers of the people's schools : 

"In one week recently three women teachers in New 
England committed suicide because, as announced, 'the un- 
ruly boys drove them to suicide.' We are less skeptical than 
we should be did we not know how strenuous is the life of a 
new teacher. . . . 

"There is no denying the fact that there is the same bump- 



56 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

tiousness among boys as there is among men and women. 
The unrest in politics, society, business, labor, suffragists, 
and church is present with boys and girls. . . . 

"It is of no avail to say that we should treat them as we 
were treated. That sort of talk has wrecked many a well- 
established business. ... It is a common event for men 
in business or in politics to commit suicide because they can- 
not deal with men as of old. Teachers are sure to pay the 
' high price ' of the times in which we live. The ' high cost of 
living' is not chiefly a financial affair." 

Nor is educational theory without an unfulfilled re- 
sponsibility in this matter. The tone of teachers' hand- 
books is generally peremptory and sarcastic in the discus- 
sion of disciplinary problems. One would assume from 
a cursory reading of these treatments that discipline is 
a very simple little matter that almost any one with 
common sense can handle without difficulty. As a re- 
sult, the young teacher who has imbibed such question- 
able wisdom is morally certain to conclude that his or 
her own troubles and vexations are peculiar to him or 
her alone. Of course, nothing but self-distrust and 
extreme depression can follow from such a conclusion, 
and the subjective attitude is inevitable. As a matter 
of fact, the implication that discipline is a trivial matter 
is entirely without warrant. Very few teachers have 
succeeded in their work without undergoing many 
strenuous and sometimes heart-rending experiences in 
dealing with recalcitrant boys and girls. And the young 
teacher will do well to look upon these difficulties as 
part and parcel of the day's work, — problems to be 



THE OBJECTIVE ATTITUDE 57 

studied and solved in a judicial frame of mind, as part 
of the work for which one is being paid. To look upon 
them as burdens which one is singled out by an unkind 
fate to bear alone and in silence, is to court disaster at 
the very outset of one's career. 

Suggestions for cultivating the Objective Attitude. — 
When these troubles threaten to assume a personal 
reference, the moment has arrived for what may be 
called " prophylactic " treatment, and the secret of 
success here is strenuously to occupy the mind with other 
activities, especially when one is tired out with a stren- 
uous day of teaching. Above all, hasty and ill-con- 
sidered action is to be avoided. Perhaps something 
may be lost by delay, but the chances are that a 
hair-trigger explosion will make matters infinitely 
worse. When a difficulty has been " slept over " the 
atmosphere is likely to clear up and one is enabled 
to see happenings in their proper perspective. There 
are certainly occasions, — as will be suggested later, — 
which will brook no delay even if one's temper is worn 
to a fine edge, but these occasions are infrequent. In 
general, then, an excellent method of cultivating the 
objective attitude is to lock the disciplinary worries in 
the schoolroom when the day's work is over. 

The importance of getting a personal grievance " out 
of the system " has already been referred to. It is 
well to imagine one's self in the place of the offend- 
ing person, — especially if the offending person is a 
child. For the child to confuse the personality of 



58 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

the teacher with the authority of the teacher is 
natural enough; for him to express his dislike of 
school requirements in forms of rebellion against those 
in authority is not unnatural. He is bound to make his 
references personal rather than impersonal, and to in- 
terpret his situations subjectively rather than objectively. 
But for the teacher to retaliate in kind, — for him to 
place himself upon the level of the immature and in- 
experienced child, — is stultifying to his adulthood. 
Offenses must be noticed ; children must be corrected ; 
the pupil must even be led to see that his conduct has 
been such as might stimulate others to anger and lead 
to personal retribution. But the teacher cannot afford 
to give the child many object lessons in loss of temper 
as a means of impressing this fact. 

In one of the best books for teachers ever written, 
Emerson E. White's School Management, the problem 
of the objective attitude is treated briefly but effec- 
tively in the following words: 

". . . It is both unwise and unjust for a teacher to feel 
that the misconduct of his pupils is aimed at him, — that 
they are actuated by conscious personal feelings toward him 
in all that they do or fail to do. Such a feeling is sure to 
estrange the teacher's heart, to lead to personal likes and 
dislikes toward pupils, and to end in discord. A reference 
to his own experience as a pupil ought to dispel such a delu- 
sion from a teacher's mind. The conduct of a pupil may be 
aimed at the teacher, may have a personal feeling back of it ; 
but this is exceptional, — at least it should be so con- 
sidered. . . . The true policy for the teacher is to keep him- 



THE OBJECTIVE ATTITUDE 59 

self out of Ms pupils' conduct, — to consider misconduct as 
an offense against the school, and not against himself. 

"The writer once gave this advice to some young teachers 
in a county institute, . . . and in the evening he was sur- 
prised and the audience convulsed, by a very pat illustration 
given as an introduction to an elocutionary entertainment. 
The elocutionist said that, at the close of the afternoon 
session, he put on his overcoat and fur muffler (the first 
seen in that section) and, with the words, 'Keep yourself 
out of your pupils' conduct,' ringing in his ears, started for 
the hotel. As he was turning a corner, a little imp across 
the street yelled out, ' My ! Ain't that feller got long ears ! ' 
Supposing that the remark was suggested by his fur muffler, 
and aimed at himself, he started across the street to punish 
the fellow for his impudence, but, on glancing up the street, 
he saw a man leading a mule with the longest ears he had 
ever seen. He came quickly to the conclusion that the boy 
meant the mule! 'It is usually wise,' he added, 'to take it 
for granted that the mischief of the school is aimed at the 
mule.' " 1 

Getting the poison of injured feelings out of the 
system may sometimes be effected through talking over 
one's troubles with an older and more experienced teacher. 
But one needs here to beware of the too kind friend who 
will sympathize so whole-heartedly as to encourage the 
nurture of the grievance. The principal or the super- 
intendent is the logical father confessor in cases of this 
sort, and the young teacher who can feel perfectly free 
to consult with the principal or the superintendent — 
and most of these men and women would receive these 

1 E. E. White, School Management, New York, 1894, p. 33. 



60 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

confidences in the right spirit — will usually gain a type 
of advice adapted to the particular situation. But the 
important point in the present connection is the ad- 
vantage of expressing one's feelings in a way that will 
not bring disaster. 

In general, absorption in objective problems will tend 
to work the desired end. These problems may be re- 
mote from the sources of one's present difficulties ; or 
they may be concerned with objective methods of solv- 
ing these difficulties, types of which will form the themes 
of the following chapters. 

Questions and Exercises 

i. What is meant by the "objective attitude" in school 
management? Contrast it by example with the " subjective 
attitude." 

2. What conditions or occurrences are likely to make the 
teacher "self-conscious"? What steps would you take to 
guard yourself against danger under these conditions ? 

3. In cases of excessive "worry" or the "blues" try the 
experiment of throwing yourself into some activity foreign to 
that causing the disturbance. Note the results. Where 
does the greatest difficulty lie in making this experiment? 
Can you devise means for reducing the difficulty at this 
point ? 

4. One person of our acquaintance suggests the following 
method of getting personal grievances " out of his system." 
When irritated or exasperated by the conduct of another, he 
sits down and writes the offender a stinging letter. This he 
places in his desk and leaves it there until the next morning. 
Invariably on re-reading the letter in the morning, it sounds so 



THE OBJECTIVE- ATTITUDE 6 1 

foolish that he throws it into the waste-basket. But the ex- 
pression has relieved the tension. 

5. A successful superintendent writes : "If we succeed in 
our schools in maintaining proper discipline, it is largely 
because we try to see things through the eyes of our pupils 
as well as through our own. Many troubles arise in school 
because of the stubbornness of teachers and because of 
their failure to see the matter from the pupil's point of 
view." Another person writes that the best way to attain 
the objective attitude is to imagine one's self on the out- 
side looking on at one's work. This art of personal "de- 
tachment" is very difficult, but it is worth practicing. 



CHAPTER V 

Transforming the Unruly School: (B) Raising 
the Qualitative Standards of School Work 

Assuming an effective professional, impersonal, and 
objective attitude upon the part of the teacher, the next 
problem is to change the point of view of the pupils in 
this unruly school. Hitherto, we may assume, the 
pupils have localized in the personality of the teacher 
the force that is compelling them to do certain tasks 
and restrain certain impulses. They have not felt the 
compulsion of the tasks themselves, nor have they recog- 
nized the necessity of the restraints. 

A Rational Attitude of the Pupils toward School Dis- 
cipline the Goal. — Ultimately, if the work of the school 
is to be prosecuted with a maximum of efficiency, the 
pupils must get beyond this primitive point of view. 
They must feel the compelling force of the work to 
which they set their hands, and they must see clearly 
that, in the interests of the social group, there are certain 
desires that cannot be gratified and that must be re- 
pressed. The fundamental reasons for these require- 
ments and restrictions should gradually be brought to 
their attention; but too much cannot be expected 
in this direction at the outset. The problem is first 

62 



RAISING QUALITATIVE STANDARDS 63 

to habituate them to the orderly, systematic, regular 
routine of tasks and duties, insuring in them a dis- 
tinct recognition that it is the task and not the teacher 
that "drives" them to persistent effort; and, at the 
same time, to cultivate the responsibility of the pupil 
group as a whole for the order and industry of individual 
members, thus acquainting the individual with the 
social pressure that, together with his daily work, will 
constitute the chief coercive force in his later life. 

In other words, the pupil must come to feel the necessity 
for sacrificing momentary whims and desires for the sake 
of his own individual progress; he must feel the necessity 
for sacrificing individual whims and desires for the sake of 
the social good; and, as far as possible, he should in his 
school life locate these compelling forces in the work that 
he is doing, or in the social group in which he has a place, 
for this is the normal state of affairs that will operate in 
his adult life. He should not locate the forces either in 
the school that he attends or in the personality of the teacher 
who instructs him, for then not only is the force likely to 
cease to operate once the influence of school and teacher 
has been removed, but the unfortunate attitude of personal 
antagonism toward those in authority is likely to persist 
indefinitely. 

Making the Work the Master. — It goes without say- 
ing that pupils who are absorbed in their tasks will 
cause a minimum of trouble in discipline. This is one 
of the " discoveries " that critics of school work are 
likely to voice emphatically — under the assumption, 



64 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

presumably, that teachers and principals are ignorant 
of the simple truism. It is quite another matter, 
however, to insure this absorption upon the part of 
every pupil in every task that the school demands, 
— and here the critics are usually discreetly silent. 
Some, however, are keen enough to recognize that this, 
after all, is the crucial problem, and propose to cut the 
Gordian knot by dispensing with all subjects in which 
pupils cannot be readily interested. This apparently 
simple solution, however, quickly collides with the public 
demand that certain subjects be taught and that teachers 
acquire the art of teaching them to the pupils who need 
them, whether these pupils " take naturally " to such 
subjects or not. Sometimes it seems that the public 
would relax a little in these demands, but usually the 
apprehension (or the hope, as the case may be) is only 
short lived. And this almost instinctive reaction of the 
public mind may be fairly trusted to reveal real needs. 
The school must meet social demands, and this necessi- 
tates common elements in education. " All the children 
of all the people " must have a certain common capital 
of skill and information, and this common capital con- 
stitutes the curriculum of the elementary school. It is 
the teacher's task, not only to give to each pupil that 
which he desires and can assimilate without effort, but 
also that which is recognized as essential to him as a 
social unit. 

The point of view from which many school critics condemn 
educational practices is well represented by William Hawley 



RAISING QUALITATIVE STANDARDS 65 

Smith's All the Children of All the People. 1 The following 
quotation will reveal the kind of thinking that this type of 
criticism involves : 

"Shall, then, our public schools have no courses of study? 
I am asked. And I hasten to reply : No fixed and uniform 
courses, the same for all the children of all the people ; no 
course which is ' that or nothing ' for every child — nothing 
like that. Surely not. We shall simply carry out, in all 
departments of these schools, the principle of 'electives,' 
now so thoroughly established in the leading colleges and uni- 
versities of this country. 

"Then, instead of sticking to the idea that the children 
are made for the schools, we shall stand on the just and 
rational basis that the schools are made for the children. 

"Then, in determining what studies each several child 
shall pursue, in making up a course of study for each, we shall 
be guided by the natural aptitude and abilities of that child, 
by the way he is, and not by the demands of any institution, 
or of men — parties who have never seen the child in question, 
and so know nothing of what he really needs to make the most 
of himself." 

It is clear that Mr. Smith has quite overlooked the 
fundamental significance to a democracy of certain basic 
facts, ideas, and ideals that are common to " all the 
people," — a fatal defect in many of the proposals made 
by schoolmen as well as laymen for the reorganization 
of the lower schools. To ask whether the pupils are for 
the schools or the schools for the pupils is to blind one's 
readers to the basic fact, — namely, that the schools are 
" f or " society and that the social demands are funda- 
mental. 

1 New York, 191 2. (Especially ch. xxiii.) 



66 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

We have small faith, however, that the problem of dis- 
cipline would be materially simplified even if the heroic 
measure of making an individual program for each pupil 
were universally adopted. After all, what the critic of 
school practice commonly forgets is the influence of ha- 
bituation. As we shall point out in a later chapter, 1 the 
fascination that one feels for one's work is very largely 
dependent upon familiarity with that work, and skill in 
its details. Any type of work is likely to be distasteful at 
certain points in the initial stages of its mastery. The prob- 
lem of "making the work the master," then, would be 
likely to confront the teacher under any circumstances. 

Raising Qualitative Standards of Work One Means 
of making the Work the Master. In the unruly school, 
the teacher is on the defensive, and his first problem is 
to transfer his pupils to this position. Here the clearly 
indicated policy is one of increasing the qualitative 
standards of school work; as one successful teacher 
replied when asked for advice on this matter, — 
" ' Stiffen ' the standards and ' check up ' the individual 
pupil more relentlessly." The strategic value of this 
policy from the point of view of discipline lies not only 
in the fact that it takes the pupils' attention away from 
mischief and concentrates it upon the school tasks, but 
also in the fact that it shifts the " defensive." The 
pupil is no longer the aggressor worrying his traditional 
enemy, but the defender finding all that he can do to 
keep his own position secure. 

1 Ch. xiv. 



RAISING QUALITATIVE STANDARDS 67 

But the emphasis should certainly be laid upon the 
adjective, " qualitative." Merely increasing the quantity 
of work to be done will be of slight service in solving the 
problem. Indeed, too many teachers vent, through 
extra long assignments, the spleen that has been irri- 
tated by inattention and disorder. This practice is to 
be thoroughly discountenanced; first, because it is 
commonly ineffective, and, secondly, because it is inter- 
preted by the pupils as a punishment, and thus breaks a 
cardinal rule of school management by making a punish- 
ment out of a school task. 

The raising of qualitative standards, however, is quite 
another matter. The unruly school is almost always 
deficient in the quality of work attempted and com- 
pleted. The ground prescribed by the course of study 
may be covered in a way, but the very fact that the 
school is unruly will mean that it is covered in a careless, 
slipshod way. A school of this type distinctly needs 
more insistence upon accuracy where accuracy is a virtue ; 
heavier stress upon neatness where neatness is a virtue ; 
greater emphasis upon rapidity, deftness, and readiness 
of response where these qualities are virtues. It is 
vastly more difficult to devise means to these ends than 
to assign ten more pages or twenty more problems. 
But effort in this qualitative direction will pay large 
dividends in an improved school spirit — provided, of 
course, that the increased demands are made so skill- 
fully as not to be interpreted by the pupils as penalties 
imposed for disorder. 



68 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

The Use of Objective Scales and Tests v in raising 
Qualitative Standards. — There is here an excellent 
opportunity for employing the objective standards 
that are being so rapidly developed for the measure- 
ment of educational progress, — the Courtis arithmetic 
tests, the Ayres and the Thorndike handwriting scales, 
the Hillegas composition scale, the Harvard-Newton 
scale, and the like. There is some question as to the 
accuracy with which these various scales actually meas- 
ure the progress of pupils in the various school arts, but 
irrespective of this question, they may be used as a means 
of developing an effective attitude toward the work. 

The Courtis tests are made up of standardized exercises 
in the fundamental operations (the "facts" or "tables") 
and in the simpler reasoning processes of arithmetic. By 
making use of the charts which are furnished with these 
exercises, the teacher may show each pupil how far he is from 
the "norm" or "average" pupil of his age, and just where his 
weakness lies, — whether in the rapidity with which he can 
make the number combinations or in the accuracy of these 
combinations. The average for the class can also be repre- 
sented graphically, and the class can be shown precisely where 
it stands with reference to other classes. 

The two handwriting scales can be used most effectively 
for measuring the advance of each pupil from month to month 
in legibility and neatness of his handwriting, and in compar- 
ing the progress of groups of pupils. The composition scales 
enable the pupils to compare their own work with typical 
exercises that have been carefully graded and scientifically 
evaluated ; and although their utility from our present point 
of view, — namely, insuring an objective attitude of the pupils 



RAISING QUALITATIVE STANDARDS 69 

toward their work, — is not so clearly marked as in the case 
of the arithmetic and handwriting scales, they can be profit- 
ably used in the seventh and eighth grades and in the high 
school. 1 

As means of directing the attention of the pupils 
toward their work and away from the mischief -impelling 
stimuli of the schoolroom, these scales have a marked 
advantage in that they represent objective rather than 
subjective standards. It is one thing to say to a pupil, 
" Your writing does not please me ; you must improve 
it." Here the teacher is being pleased or displeased, 
and the subjective attitude is being encouraged on both 
sides. It is quite another thing to say : " Here is a hand- 
writing chart used throughout the country to find out 
just how well or how poorly people write. Let us see 
where your paper stands on this scale." The teacher 
is now no longer the judge and the pupil the culprit, 
One is not combating the other, but both are looking 
toward an objective goal, and the way is open for the 
teacher to come into his true function, — not that of 
a taskmaster, but rather that of a guide and counselor 
to the pupil, pointing the way and showing the means to- 
ward an achievement the worth and significance of which 
the pupil can grasp. 

1 The Courtis tests may be obtained at small cost from the World 
Book Co., Yonkers, New York. The Ayres handwriting scale in a 
very convenient form is supplied by the Russell Sage Foundation, New 
York City, at five cents a copy. The Thorndike handwriting scale 
and the Hillegas composition scale are published by Teachers Col- 
lege, Columbia University, New York City. The Harvard-Newton 
scale is published by the Aldine Company, New York City. 



70 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

It should not be inferred from this discussion that the 
approval or the disapproval of the teacher is an unworthy- 
reward or penalty for good or poor work. In a well-ordered 
and well-disciplined school, where an effective spirit has been 
established, the teacher's approval and disapproval may be 
the most effective of all rewards or penalties. But we are 
now dealing with the unruly school where, by hypothesis, 
the prevailing attitude of the pupil is hostile to the teacher 
and careless of his or her approval. Indeed, in such a school, 
the teacher's open disapproval is often the prize that most 
pupils seek — so twisted have their ideals and standards 
become with the decay of the school's morale. 

Encouraging Pupils to compete with their Own " Best 
Records" — A caution that must go with this suggestion 
of " stiffening " qualitative standards suggests itself 
at once. It is the troublesome problem of " individual 
differences." If one raises standards, one tends to dis- 
courage those who are at the weaker end of the scale of 
ability, thus increasing rather than diminishing the likeli- 
hood of disciplinary difficulties. Here the way out in- 
volves another shift in the pupil's point of view — and 
also, perhaps, in the teacher's point of view. While it 
would be impossible and probably unwise entirely to 
eliminate emulation and rivalry as school incentives, 
these forces must be supplemented by another principle 
which has been rightly emphasized in recent discussions of 
school management : the principle, namely, of encourag- 
ing each pupil to compete, not only with the records that 
other pupils make, but also with his ownbest previous record. 

Here, again, the objective scales may be employed to 



RAISING QUALITATIVE STANDARDS 7 1 

good purpose. The significance of the individual 
curves that can be plotted for the Courtis tests, for ex- 
ample, maybe made intelligible to upper-grade pupils, and 
offer effective incentives for putting forth effort toward 
improvement. Records of individual growth may also 
be charted in other subjects. 

In one school, for example, the per cent of correctly spelled 
words was computed at regular intervals from a sample 
selected at random from the composition work of each pupil 
for that period. Practically every pupil in the room strove 
valiantly to increase this per cent each month. The hand- 
writing scales, as has been suggested, lend themselves admi- 
rably to the problem of recording individual progress. Prac- 
tically all of the "habit" or "drill" subjects (arithmetic, 
spelling, basic reading, penmanship, and oral and written 
composition) may be employed in this way to stimulate 
self-rivalry. 

Encouraging Group Rivalry. — The evils of individual 
rivalry that are likely to handicap efforts at raising 
qualitative standards may be counteracted, not only 
by stimulating individuals to compete with their own 
best records, but also by encouraging rivalry between 
groups rather than between individuals. The advantage 
of group rivalry lies in the fact that it stimulates all of 
the pupils to do their best work for the good name of the 
group. Where competition is strictly individual, the 
weaker members of the group will become discouraged 
and quickly drop out of the race, leaving the honors to 
be struggled for by two or three of the brighter pupils. 



72 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

But where groups are pitted against one another, the 
score of each individual is a factor in the average score 
of the group, and the pressure of the group upon each 
individual will, under ordinary circumstances, be suffi- 
ciently heavy to insure a maximum of effort. 

Thus rooms of the same grade in a city system may very 
profitably and with little danger of injustice engage in spirited 
competitions of various sorts, — spelling contests, arithmetic 
contests, geography contests, handwriting contests, history 
contests, and the like. And it is quite possible, by dividing 
a single class into two or more groups, to obtain the same 
advantage of collective competition. 

Summary. — In the unruly school, it was said, the 
teacher is on the defensive, and the activity of the pupils 
is devoted in large part to " making trouble." To 
transform this attitude effectively, the pupils must come 
to feel the compelling force of the work and the compel- 
ling force of the social group. In the unruly school, 
the latter force makes for disorder ; hence it, too, must 
be transformed. The first step, then, is to " make the 
work the master," and to insure the occupation of the 
pupils' minds by the tasks for which the school exists. 
One means toward this end is to raise the qualitative 
standards of work through the various devices just dis- 
cussed : (i) the use of objective scales, (2) encourag- 
ing pupils to compete with their own best records, and 
(3) encouraging collective or group competition. It is 
clear, also, that the latter measure will do something 
to stimulate the responsibility of the group for the con- 



RAISING QUALITATIVE STANDARDS 73 

duct of the individual. This problem, however, we 
shall discuss in detail a little later. We have still to men- 
tion another means of "making the work the master, " — 
namely, the employment of the " individual assignment." 
This will be the theme of the following chapter. 

Questions and Exercises 

i. In what ways, if any, is the following precept imprac- 
ticable in school discipline: "The pupil should never be 
required to do anything for which he does not understand 
the reason"? Name some requirements of school work or 
of school management that could not be met under a thor- 
oughly consistent application of this precept. 

2. Find in your own experience instances of holding your- 
self to disagreeable tasks because of the ultimate end to be 
gained. Compare with experiences in which you have been 
held by the will of another. 

3. Name some of the things that you now do or leave 
undone because of the "pressure" of the social group. What 
is the difference in your own experience between tasks or 
sacrifices that are necessitated by the "collective will" of 
your fellows and the tasks and sacrifices that are necessitated 
by the individual will or "fiat" of some one in authority ? 

4. Discuss the practicability of limiting the school work 
of each pupil to the studies and activities for which he has an 
aptitude or a liking. 

5. Can you find in your own experience an instance of 
work which, if prosecuted systematically and successfully, 
is always pleasant and agreeable ? 

6. What is the difference between raising the standards 
of work "qualitatively" and raising these standards "quan- 
titatively"? Give illustrations. 



74 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

7. What are the advantages of using the standard tests 
or "scales" as means of raising qualitative standards? 

8. Distinguish between "rivalry between individuals, " 
"self -rivalry," and "group-rivalry." State the advantages 
and limitations of each type of rivalry. 

9. Devise means for applying the principle of self -rivalry 
in the study of the different school subjects. 

10. Under what conditions may group-rivalry be most 
effectively stimulated? Illustrate the application of this 
principle to the different school subjects. 



CHAPTER VI 

Transforming the Unruly School: (C) The Em- 
ployment oe "Individual" Assignments 

A second suggestion for transforming a bad school 
spirit is to make a wide use of what is called the " problem 
interest." An individual assignment for investigation 
and report involves a type of individual responsibility 
which the pupil usually feels more keenly than he feels 
his responsibility for class assignments. The latter, 
of course, must be given ; lessons and problems that are 
common to all of the members of the class are essential 
if the aim of education is to be realized ; but the former 
is especially important in the unruly school as a means 
of gaining the cooperation of recalcitrant pupils. It is 
again to be noted that this is the kind of " discipline " 
that the pupil will meet in his later life. He will be held 
responsible for the accomplishment of certain specific 
and individual tasks, and under the lash of this direct 
responsibility it not infrequently happens that men 
who were refractory schoolboys settle down to industri- 
ous and well-ordered lives. The individual problem, 
carefully administered, represents a type of experience 
that will probably do more to teach the boy or the girl 
the basic moral lessons of work and industry than any 
other means that the school may devise. 

75 



76 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

The Pupil should feel a Responsibility to the Class 
as well as to the Teacher in working Individual Problems. 

— It has just been said that the individual problem must 
be carefully administered if its rich disciplinary values 
are to be realized ; and this involves, first of all, that it 
be clearly related in the pupil's mind, either to some need 
that he feels in his own life for the material which the 
problem will produce, or to some need that the group 
feels. The latter is the more important factor, and 
individual assignments should, if possible, be made with 
a distinct reference to the group needs. 

For example, a teacher of our acquaintance asked a pair 
of troublesome boys to measure off a rod, a hundred yards, 
a half mile, and a mile on a route familiar to all of the pupils 
so that the class might have an objective standard for refer- 
ence when distances were under discussion. The work, if 
we remember aright, was done outside of school hours, and 
quite willingly. The results were reported by the two boys 
with obvious pride in the achievement. They had seen 
surveyors measuring with the chain and were not at all averse 
to carrying the tape-line through the streets. In this same 
school, individual pupils were assigned to find out the prices 
of different articles of commerce, and report to the class the 
data which were then used in the construction of problems. 

The " lantern lesson," as employed in a certain system of 
schools, is also illustrative of this social use of the individual 
assignment. Each school in the system possesses a stereopti- 
con, and a large collection of slides, classified into topic 
groups, for instruction in geography and history, is provided 
at the central office. If a sixth-grade teacher wishes to give 
a lesson, let us say, on London, she sends to the office for the 



INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS 77 

London slides. Different pupils are then assigned slides for 
discussion. If one is given Westminster Abbey, for example, 
he will be responsible to the class for giving a clear, succinct 
account of the Abbey, and to do this he must look up the data 
in all of the sources that are available, prepare his topic for a 
three-minute presentation, and be ready at the time of the 
lesson to take entire charge of the exercise while this particular 
picture is on the screen. Pictures collected from magazines 
and other sources, and mounted on cardboard, could be simi- 
larly utilized. 

The late Professor F. L. Charles collected, with the as- 
sistance of elementary-school pupils, a mass of valuable in- 
formation regarding the feeding habits of birds. Individual 
pupils were assigned to watch the birds during half-hour 
periods from early morning until dark, noting the kind and 
amount of food brought to the nest for the mother and the 
young. The assignment involved a type of observation 
that would naturally interest the normal child, but, in addi- 
tion to this, it emphasized the significance of systematic 
work and close attention in a way that the pupils could 
thoroughly appreciate, for the fact that inaccuracy of ob- 
servation or failure to watch the nests continually would 
invalidate the results was quite within their comprehension 
and an effective group pride in the efficiency of the investiga- 
tion was easily developed. 

Individual Problems should have a Value clearly 
understood by the Pupils. — To assign individual 
problems simply as tasks imposed in the way of punish- 
ment would be fatal to the purpose that we have in mind. 
Penalties and punishments there must be, we may say 
now in anticipation of later discussion, but school tasks, 
let us repeat, should never be employed as penalties. 



78 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

Our problem here is to transform the attitude of the pupil 
by indirect means, — by noncoercive means (except as 
the work itself or the pressure of the social group is 
a coercive force). Individual problems, then, should 
never be employed simply for the sake of " keeping the 
pupils occupied " ; indeed, if the pupil is not to become 
disgusted with the whole policy of individual assign- 
ments, great care must be exercised to avoid the collec- 
tion of data that cannot be digested and employed to 
good purpose. Kow to make these individual reports 
thoroughly valuable is likely to tax the resourcefulness 
of the teacher, but time and energy spent in planning 
for this work will usually bring most gratifying results. 
The following suggestions may be helpful to the young 
teacher in organizing this phase of his work : 

Types of Individual Assignments. — In the teaching 
of geography, Sutherland x advises the keeping of a 
weather record, with two observations daily (one at 
nine in the morning and one at four in the afternoon) 
and the correlation of the recorded data with the fol- 
lowing facts : time of plowing in the spring ; time 
of planting and seeding various crops; time of ap- 
pearance of crops above the ground ; time of flowering 
of strawberries, raspberries, plums, and other fruits; 
time of commencement of haying, and of harvesting 
various cereals; time of ripening of various fruits; 
time of migration of wild fowl and birds ; time of leafing 
and fall of leaves in deciduous trees ; the date of breaking 

1 W. J. Sutherland, The Teaching of Geography, Chicago, 1909, p. 231, 



INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS 79 

up of ice in large rivers and bays ; the date of greatest 
rise and of lowest water in streams. Information of 
this type could be profitably collected by individual 
pupils, and made of large value in the study of geography. 

If a goodly number of textbooks in history are available, 
individual pupils may be asked to look up and report 
to the class the variations in the treatment of the same 
topic in the different texts. In some cases, rather wide 
differences will be found, and even discrepancies and in- 
consistencies will appear in statements that would ordi- 
narily be taken as facts. Where such discrepancies 
are found, the individual assignment may again be 
employed to trace the difficulty to its source and to 
determine, if possible, what the facts really are. The 
same treatment may be applied to texts in geography, 
physiology, and in other school subjects. 1 

In connection with reading, many excellent suggestions 
for individual assignments may be gained from the special 
textbooks on the teaching of reading. The method 
advocated by Professor S. H. Clark, 2 for example, in- 
volves a careful study of the selection in hand for the 
purpose of determining just how much stress should be 
given to each word in oral reading in order to express the 
precise meaning of the author. By assigning different 
parts to different pupils, this procedure will do much 
to stimulate individual responsibility. The class exercise 

1 The writer is indebted to Professor L. D. Coffman for this and 
other suggestions in connection with individual assignments. 

2 S. H. Clark, How to Teach Reading in Public Schools, Chicago, 
1903, ch. v. 



80 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

may then be devoted in part to a critical discussion of 
each pupil's rendering of the part assigned especially 
to him. 

To the suggestions mentioned above for making 
individual assignments in arithmetic, the framing of 
" original " problems by the pupils may be profitably 
added. 

"Children should be permitted to 'make up problems. ' 
This is another excellent device for stimulating vigorous 
thinking [and, we should add in the present connection, for 
realizing the disciplinary advantages of the individual assign- 
ment]. The best of the original problems might be written 
in a book called 'Our Original Arithmetic' or 'Our Own 
Arithmetic' The problems thus preserved may be used 
later for review purposes. Whenever the data involved in 
such problems are of an informational character, they should 
correspond to actual conditions. For example, it is not wise 
to assume in a problem that the distance from New York to 
Chicago is 250 miles ; that wheat sells for $6 a bushel and 
silk for $85 a yard. The duplication of a difficult problem 
by a simpler original problem frequently clears away the 
difficulty." 1 

The Framing of Questions by Pupils. — The suggestion 
just given regarding the framing of original problems 
in arithmetic illustrates a general practice to which good 
teachers often resort. At frequent intervals, two or 
three members of the class are asked to prepare a 
list of questions on the next assignment; the teacher 

1 J. C. Brown and L. D. Coffman, How to Teach Arithmetic, Chicago, 
1914, p. 81. 



INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS 8 1 

looks over the list before the recitation and permits the 
pupil having the most satisfactory questions to take the 
place of the teacher in "quizzing" the class. The main 
purpose of this device, of course, is to give the pupil a 
very effective motive for reading the text intelligently, 
but it is also a suggestive means of applying this principle 
of the individual assignment. The following report of 
a lesson conducted on this basis is taken from the Ohio 
State School Survey Report : 1 

"The teacher called the primary history class and said, 
'John, you begin/ Apparently each pupil had prepared 
several questions, not only upon the present assignment, but 
upon previous work. John read one of his questions and 
called on Jane to answer. . . . Another was called on. 
The pupils then informally discussed the question. The 
teacher occasionally commended, added to the question and 
to the answer, but the recitation was strictly a pupils' exer- 
cise. The teacher inspired enthusiasm, energy, and control 
as well as diligence in the classroom. This shows what can 
be done by a 'live' teacher with practically no equipment." 

The " Project " in Manual Training as a Type of 
Individual Assignment. — The use of the term " proj- 
ect " to designate the " problem " in construction work 
of all sorts, and particularly in manual training, is 
particularly apt. It implies a plan to be worked out in 
detail, an idea projected into the future as a guide for 
systematic effort. This conception of the individual 
assignment could be profitably applied, we believe, in the 

1 Columbus, 1 9 1 4, p. 148. 
G 



82 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

teaching of the " book " subjects, especially in mathe- 
matics, the natural sciences, geography, and history. 
Young, 1 for example, recommends for high school 
mathematics an adaptation of the laboratory plan of 
teaching the natural sciences. He would have a special 
room provided with tables, drawing instruments, large 
blackboard areas, mathematical models, surveying in- 
struments, balances, steelyards, barometers, thermom- 
eters, and other apparatus. Here the pupils would 
do most of their " studying " for the classwork (which 
this laboratory work would supplement and not sup- 
plant), and they would also be assigned projects and 
problems, some of which, we infer, might come under 
our conception of individual assignments. 

School " Dramatics " and Festivals as Sources of In- 
dividual Assignments. — The current employment of 
the individual problem is perhaps most clearly illustrated 
in the dramatic enterprises, festivals, and pageants that 
are now so important a feature of school life. Here 
the feeling of individual responsibility is richly intensi- 
fied by the public nature of the exercises and by the need, 
very obvious to every pupil, of making the affair a 
" success." Under the stress of this responsibility, the 
attitude toward the work of an ordinarily troublesome 
group of pupils is likely to be radically different from the 
attitude toward " regular " school work. This suggests 
at once the importance of insuring a " transfer " of the 

1 J. W. A. Young, The Teaching of Mathematics, New York, 1906, 
ch. vi. 



INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS 83 

more favorable attitude to the regular school activities. 
Not infrequently the glamour and excitement incident to 
the special exercises serve only to render the routine 
work more burdensome, and thus the disciplinary diffi- 
culties are aggravated rather than alleviated. Upon 
this problem, unfortunately, the advocates of festivals, 
pageants, and similar enterprises are usually silent. It 
would seem possible, however, to make clear, especially 
to the older pupils, the close connection between the daily 
discipline of the routine work and marked efficiency in 
the special exercises. 

The advantages of the festival from the point of view of 
our present problem are admirably summarized by Dykema : l 

"Possibly the most important underlying idea is this: 
For those who are presenting the festival, there are certain 
advantages that can hardly be secured in any other way. 
The responsibility for the occasion introduces a peculiarly 
valuable motive which affects even the most unresponsive 
members of the class. The problem of learning has a new 
aspect, for the question of communication here appears in its 
best form. To the performers comes a transforming stand- 
ard ; not what we know, but what we can make others know ; 
not what we can feel, but what we can make others feel. 
Very soon arises a consciousness of that first element of effec- 
tive communication ; namely, absolute clearness and definite- 
ness on the part of the one who is to give the message. Pupils 
become conscious of their own weaknesses, as they strive to 
collect the material. In the desire to help others they find 
they must prepare themselves. There arises a spirit of self- 

1 Peter Dykema, in The Craftsman, vol. xii, pp. 649 f. (Quoted by 
Irving King : Social Aspects of Education, New York, 191 2, p. 270.) 



84 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

induced activity which is of the greatest value. Books are 
read, authorities consulted, pictures studied, that the teacher 
hardly knows about." 

It is clear that the drama, the festival, and the pageant 
may fulfill an important function in developing among 
the members of the pupil group a group consciousness 
and a group responsibility that, again under the impor- 
tant conditions of " transfer " to the routine school 
activities, may be very effective agencies in transforming 
the attitude of the pupils toward school discipline. This 
phase of the discussion, however, will be reserved for a 
later chapter, our present concern being with the oppor- 
tunities for individual assignments afforded by these 
exercises. 

Concrete Illustrations of the Disciplinary Employment 
of the Individual Assignment. — By way of summary of 
the preceding discussion, two cases may be cited as 
clearly illustrative of our suggestions regarding the use 
of the individual assignment as a means of transforming 
the pupil's attitude toward the teacher and toward 
school work. The first deals with a tactful method of 
quelling incipient disorder in a high school assembly 
room. 1 

The high-school assembly room was nearly full. The 
weather was of the warm, damp, oppressive sort. The 
troublesome pupil (a girl) was growing restless and looking 
about for a new and striking way of creating a "stir." She 
was not inherently mischievous; in general, her impulses 

1 The writer is indebted to Miss Elizabeth Fuller for this illustration. 



INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS 85 

were unselfish and usually commendable. She was, however, 
nervous and excitable by nature, acting quickly upon the 
presentation of a stimulus. The situation was rendered the 
more critical by the fact that, as she was a natural leader, 
whatever she did was likely to be imitated by her admiring 
mates. Dealing with her was consequently a delicate matter. 

She began her mischief by making paper dolls. One or 
two others had already followed her example, and still others 
were waiting, with alert senses, to see how matters would go 
before committing themselves to the same diversion. It was 
clearly the "psychological moment" for action on the part of 
the teacher. The recalcitrant pupil was evidently awaiting 
the teacher's move; she made no effort to conceal the dolls 
upon her desk ; her eyes were sparkling and her cheeks 
flushed. She was expecting a combat — in fact, her whole 
conduct was a challenge. 

"In that brief moment when our eyes met," reports the 
teacher, "I made my plans. I walked slowly down to her 
desk, just as she expected, apparently oblivious to the two 
or three paper dolls on it. Anita braced herself for the 
impact. 'Anita,' I said in a matter-of-fact tone, 'have you 
too much work to take a special assignment in English ?' 
She was so suddenly taken aback by the unexpected request 
that she was momentarily thrown off her guard, and I quickly 
followed up my advantage. 'That conversation between 
Priscilla and Nancy in to-morrow's lesson is very important, 
but hard to read because of the dialect. It needs special 
preparation. Will you be responsible for Priscilla's part?' 
Anita promised with an entirely different expression on her 
face. Without glancing at the desk or at the neighboring 
pupils, I walked away and proceeded to assign Nancy's part 
to another pupil. The paper dolls unostentatiously disap- 
peared from Anita's desk and she became absorbed imme- 
diately in a book, — not Silas Marner, by the way, but her 



86 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

geometry. For the rest of the period, the atmosphere of the 
entire room was one of deep, unbroken study. Nor did Anita 
during all the rest of the year show any tendency to create 
disturbances that could not be quelled at the moment by a 
look or a quiet word." 

The second case is illustrative of a type of individual 
assignment that we have not as yet referred to, — in- 
trusting a troublesome pupil with a personal responsibil- 
ity in order to gain his confidence. It is taken from 
White's School Management : 1 

"Many years ago, the writer heard or read this touching 
incident in the experience of a teacher who, in his day, was one 
of the most successful of the Boston masters. There came 
into his school one morning a rough Irish lad, some fifteen 
years of age. His rude conduct surprised the pupils ; but the 
master saw his opportunity, and quietly endured the dis- 
turbance until noon, when he requested the boy to remain. 
This was received with manifest displeasure. When the 
other pupils had left the room, the master requested the boy 
to come to his desk. This was silently but defiantly refused ; 
but, on being assured that he would not be punished, the boy 
sullenly came to the master's desk. By a few questions, he 
learned that the boy had neither home nor friends ; that 
often he had no place to sleep, and often nothing to eat except 
as he begged it. He also confessed that he had come to school 
to make a disturbance and see what would be done about it. 
The master assured the boy that he would like to be his 
friend, and, if he would come to school, he could help him 
to better his prospects in life. He then gave the boy a half 
dollar, and asked him if he would go to a certain place and 
buy a luncheon for him, naming the articles. This unex- 

X P. 174. 



INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS 87 

pected expression of confidence in his honor touched the 
rough boy, and in a few minutes he returned With the desired 
articles and the change. The master had won his pupil. 
He divided his luncheon with the hungry fellow, who at 
first declined to share it, but, on this being suggested, took it 
to the cloak room where he ate what was really his only 
meal of the day. When the school was called in the after- 
noon, the Irish boy was in his place, changed in spirit and 
purpose. He continued in school, a home was found for him, 
and, when we learned the incident years later, he was one of 
the successful and honored business merchants of Boston." 

It is essential that a word should be spoken here against 
too wide a generalization of specific instances such as 
those just cited, and especially the case quoted from Mr. 
White. The problem of school discipline is extremely 
complex, and practices that are successful under certain 
conditions may be quite unsuccessful under conditions 
that seem identical. The difficulty lies, of course, in 
accounting for all conditions, and this difficulty stands in 
the way of anything approaching a " science " of dis- 
cipline based upon a comparison of cases. 

Another source of difficulty in interpreting reports 
of disciplinary cases is suggested by the tendency of the 
person reporting to overemphasize the emotional ele- 
ments and thus invalidate the use of the case as a basis 
for a rational, empirical study of the disciplinary problem. 
Mr. White's illustration, while clearly indicating a type 
of treatment that may be beneficial in certain instances, 
is to be somewhat discounted for this reason, — and also 
because of the uncertainty that must always attach 



88 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

to third-hand or fourth-hand reports. We shall have 
occasion to reiterate this caution in succeeding sections. 

Questions and Exercises 

i. Give a clear illustration of the method of teaching 
through "problems." Compare assignments of the same 
problems to the group or class as a whole with the assignment 
of individual problems. Which serves the better to stimu- 
late individual responsibility ? 

2. Devise stimulating individual problems for a fifth- 
grade arithmetic class, a fourth-grade geography class, and 
a seventh-grade history class. Can you think of concrete 
applications of the principle of individual assignment in 
the teaching of formal grammar, composition, literature, and 
spelling ? 

3. Name the principal dangers that should be avoided in 
employing this principle of individual assignments as one 
means of transforming an unruly school. 

4. What are some of the advantages of having pupils 
frame questions and problems related to the subject-matter 
that they are studying? What are the limitations of this 
practice ? 

5. What is the significance of the term "project" as used 
in manual training and related subjects? What conditions 
should be met by the "projects" if they are to stimulate indi- 
vidual responsibility in an effective way ? 

6. Under what conditions will a temperate employment of 
dramatics, pageants, and other public or semipublic exercises 
stimulate individual responsibility? What dangers would 
you have in mind in employing these devices? Have you 
ever known them to be employed with evil effects ? 

7. Under what conditions would you give a very trouble- 
some pupil unusual responsibilities for looking after certain 



INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS 89 

phases of school routine, or for certain trusts (taking messages 
to the principal, going to the store to purchase supplies, and 
the like) ? Under what conditions would these practices 
be looked upon by other pupils as offering a reward for mis- 
conduct ? 

8. Note at a teachers' institute or similar gathering the 
concrete instances of classroom practices used by the speakers 
to illustrate their principles. In each case ask yourself 
(and perhaps occasionally the speaker) how far it is safe to 
generalize from the case cited. Ask in how far the principle 
that is illustrated would apply in situations where the condi- 
tions were slightly different. 

9. An institute instructor once drew a heart-rending picture 
of a girl who was kept after school for tardiness when, upon 
investigation, it was found that this girl had to prepare the 
breakfast at home and wash the breakfast dishes before 
coming to school. The attending teachers inferred from the 
narration of the incident that the speaker disapproved of 
punishing pupils for tardiness. Could the instance be legiti- 
mately used to support this] belief ? What important prin- 
ciple of school management could legitimately be illustrated 
by the incident ? 



CHAPTER VII 

Transforming the Unruly School: (D) Stimulat- 
ing Group Responsibility 

The source of greatest difficulty in the unruly school 
lies in the fact that the " group sanctions " attach to 
the wrong kind of behavior. Under any conditions, a 
large proportion of the pupils will strive for the approval 
of their fellows. As was suggested in an earlier chapter, 
some will not be largely influenced by this factor, but 
these are distinctly atypical. What is ordinarily termed 
the "goody-goody " child will be tractable and docile even 
under classroom conditions that make disobedience and ♦ 
disorder the lines of least resistance ; and the naturally 
vicious, the abnormally " willful," and the inordinately 
lazy individuals will be sources of disciplinary difficulty 
even when the " fashion" of good order has been as 
firmly established as possible. These are the specific 
variations which will be dealt with later. For the 
present, our concern is still exclusively with the mass 
of normal pupils. 

The Importance of Developing Group Responsibility. 
— The objective point in this connection is so to organize 
the group activities that the group sanctions will attach 
to order and industry, and impel the normal pupil to 

90 



STIMULATING GROUP RESPONSIBILITY 9 1 

conduct himself consistently with the welfare of the 
group. This is the characteristic par excellence of the 
" well-disciplined " school. Nothing else will take its 
place as a factor in what may be termed " educative " 
discipline, — that is, in the type of discipline that will 
be effective in molding permanent habits, standards, 
and ideals in the pupil body. Schools that lack this 
group consciousness may, it is true, be dominated by a 
strong teacher, and these schools may be characterized 
by a measure of order and industry quite meriting the 
approval even of the most critical observer, but it is 
likely that a prolonged study of the situation would 
reveal antagonisms and enmities that have only been 
covered up and not destroyed by the vigorous but not 
wholly successful methods of the martinet. The situa- 
tion, in other words, is not likely to be permanent unless 
the control is kept at a high tension, nor is it likely to 
result in an effective and sympathetic attitude of the 
pupils toward law, order, and properly constituted au- 
thority. It is in this particular that the ideal of school 
discipline has been most radically transformed within 
the last quarter century. The older idea was that of 
the teacher as a " master " ; the present-day idea is 
that of the teacher as a counselor and guide. 

The Limitations of Group Responsibility: The Old 
Idea of the Teacher as a Master to be Modified but not 
entirely Abandoned. — What has just been said, how- 
ever, does not mean that the older idea is to be entirely 
abandoned. The ideal relationship between the teacher 



92 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

and the pupil body is somewhat analogous to the ideal 
relationship between parents and children, between the 
wise employer and his employees, between a responsible 
official and his subordinates. The fact of responsi- 
bility, in other words, must never be forgotten by the 
teacher, the parent, the employer, or the official. The 
responsibility must, in turn, be balanced by a propor- 
tionate measure of authority which must be clearly recog- 
nized by the pupils in the school, the children in the 
family, the employees in business and industry, the 
subordinates in all forms of organization. But granted 
these two factors — first, the appreciation of responsibility 
by those in authority, and, secondly, the recognition of the 
authority of those who are responsible by the subordi- 
nates — the functions of the school, the home, the pri- 
vate business, or the organization are best fulfilled when 
there exists a perfect rapport between the two parties, 
when coercion is least in evidence, and when harmoni- 
ous, intelligent, and sympathetic cooperation is most in 
evidence. But the fact of responsibility in each case may 
mean at times the exercise of authority with full rigor. 
The teacher at times must command rather than lead 
or guide, just as the father must insist that his will be 
carried out, the employer that his demands be met, the 
responsible official that his orders be obeyed. The new 
ideal of discipline does not mean that the authority of 
the teacher is to be surrendered or that his responsibility 
for the welfare of the majority is to be lessened. It is 
important that this principle be emphasized because 



STIMULATING GROUP RESPONSIBILITY 93 

there has been a tendency to interpret the new ideal 
of discipline as meaning the surrender of authority by 
the teacher, and the reduction of the school to a self- 
governing community which, under a regime of this 
type, quickly becomes an ungoverned and ungovern- 
able community. 

The Danger of purchasing Order with Favors. — Nor 
can any institution supported and commissioned by the 
people as a whole to instruct and discipline the children 
of the people afford to buy the obedience and industry 
of its pupil body as if these were favors to be given or 
withheld at will. The greatest danger in a democracy 
is typified by just such practices : the tendency to infer 
that, because the forms and restrictions of government 
" come from the people," any individual among the peo- 
ple, recognizing his own right to an " equal voice " in 
making these forms and restrictions, may violate the 
forms and override the restrictions at his pleasure. As 
Perry * so aptly states the case : 

"The individual as a subject is a unit, but as a sovereign 
he is a fraction. The confusion arises when the individual, 
realizing that he is a unit subject, concludes too that he is a 
unit sovereign." 

The attempt, then, to build up an effective social 
spirit in the school through the granting of privileges or 
immunities that may be interpreted by pupils as bribes 
to order and industry is to be looked upon as bad practice. 

1 A. C. Perry, Jr., The Status of the Teacher, Boston, 1912, p. 9. 



94 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

Certainly proposals implying that those in authority 
are incompetent to manage the school and suggesting 
the inference that the pupil body must be bribed, cajoled, 
or flattered into compliance with reasonable demands, 
point to a type of " self-government " that will spell 
anarchy in the end. 

A situation was recently brought to the attention of the 
writer which both illustrates this danger and typifies the 
evils that are likely to accompany a short-sighted policy of 
pupil self-government. A small city has been for some years 
the scene of factional difficulties in connection with the ad- 
ministration of the high school. Principals have succeeded 
one another with alarming rapidity, first this and then the 
other faction coming into control, displacing the former 
incumbent, and installing his successor. Further than this, 
active representatives of the two factions have openly gone 
into the school and organized the pupils for or against the 
ruling administration. As a result the discipline of the 
school has become completely demoralized. The pupils 
openly boast that it is through their good- will that a principal 
or teacher holds his or her position. Under a condition of 
this sort (intensified as it happens to be at the present time 
by a weak-kneed superintendent who curries favor with the 
pupils by encouraging them in the belief that they are govern- 
ing themselves), the ends for which the school exists are quite 
negated, and the lot of the self-respecting classroom teacher 
is intolerable. 

Here we have the evil tendencies of a democracy in an 
exaggerated form. Pupils have come to look upon order, 
obedience, and industry as favors that they have the power 
to bestow in return for certain favors which those in authority 
bestow upon them. 



STIMULATING GROUP RESPONSIBILITY 95 

The " Honor System " as a Case in Point. — It is, 
indeed, a difficult matter to judge in every instance 
whether a practice or policy that promises immediate 
success in meeting a desperate situation will prove 
ultimately and permanently successful, or whether it will 
in the end give rise to results that are worse than the 
initial evil. The " honor system " as a cure for the evils 
of cheating in examinations is a case in point, and illus- 
trates admirably both the advantages and the dangers 
of stimulating group responsibility for individual con- 
duct. An animated discussion of the ethics of the honor 
system as applied to college administration appeared 
recently in the columns of The Nation, 1 and many of the 
points brought out in this discussion have direct reference 
to our present problem. 

The initial article took the form of a letter to the editor 
from Professor O. W. Firkins, attacking the honor system 
primarily on ethical grounds. The doctrine upon which the 
system is based, he contends, "favors interpretations which 
its upholders would be the first to reject, since they subvert 
the foundations of morality." He goes on to say: "The 
student who is encouraged to think that his honesty is the 
proper reward for his teacher's obsequious withdrawal [from 
the examination room], proceeds to the pleasing inference 
that his cheating is the fitting punishment for his teacher's 
continuance in the room. Thus for the wholesomely rigor- 
ous maxim of our forefathers, 'No honesty, no trust,' is sub- 
stituted the emasculating and corrupting motto, 'No trust, 
no honesty.' To what consequences, in the application of 

1 Issues of May 7, 14, 21, 1914, and succeeding issues. 



96 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

this doctrine in the wider school of life, might not the apt 
pupil in this form of casuistry be persuasively and rationally 
led ? The disbelief of his hearers in his words will constitute 
in his mind an authorization to lie ; the refusal of a firm to 
give him credit will be interpreted as a license to purloin its 
goods. A high-minded university cannot stoop to ask its 
students to be virtuous in return for this or that act of con- 
sideration on its part ; it cannot buy their integrity." 

W. A. Colwell, 1 in replying to Professor Firkins, does not 
take issue on the point of ethics that the latter raised, but 
rather denies that the student's attitude under the honor 
system is that of one who is being bribed. After pointing 
out the two essential features of the honor system (first, the 
pledge not to cheat, and, secondly, the pledge to report to 
the student committee any one detected in cheating), he says : 
11 The virtuous student receives no quid pro quo. His honesty 
is not conditioned upon his teacher's absence or presence. . . . 
Exactly the same credit redounds to the individual member 
of the group as to a member of any other self-governing com- 
munity — and no more. He has only done his duty when he 
obeys and upholds its laws." He further contends that, if 
the honor system works, "the sense of responsibility for one's 
self and for the group, which it develops, is worth much, and 
it is a distinct advance over any system of inspection, but 
each system must of course be judged by its results, and if 
the students do not enforce the honor sy stent, it becomes a wretched 
farce and should be abandoned." 2 

These two statements from divergent points of view 
indicate very clearly both the very real dangers and the 
very effective virtues which inhere in the doctrine of 
pupil or student self-government. The form or the letter 

1 The Nation, issue of June 4, 1914, p. 663. 2 Italics ours. 



STIMULATING GROUP RESPONSIBILITY 97 

counts for little; the spirit or the attitude is all-important. 
A scheme of self-government that succeeds in one school 
may work havoc in another, and the success of the honor 
system, like the success of any other form of self-govern- 
ment, depends upon conditions that are not always met 
simply by establishing the system. To the pupil or the 
student, the examination may be the most important 
event in his school life, or it may be merely a huge joke. 
If it is the former, the honor system, unless rigorously ad- 
ministered, will be interpreted as an injustice by the 
really honorable pupils, for they will see that others by 
cheating obtain with a minimum of effort the same 
rewards for which they themselves must struggle. If it 
is the latter, an " honor system " will have but negligible 
influence in any direction, and is more likely to become 
part and parcel of the joke than to serve as a means of 
inculcating the ideals of group responsibility. 

J. K. Stableton 1 has called attention to the marked 
sense of injustice that many pupils feel when the teacher 
" trusts the class " at examination time. 

". . . The teacher says . . . 'I want them [the pupils] 
to feel that I trust them.' 'It makes them honest.' . . . 
The teacher . . . held to the thought that she must be care- 
ful not to make them think she mistrusted them, and in so 
doing gave the ones inclined to take unfair advantage every 
opportunity to do it. The result was that there was dis- 
honesty throughout almost the entire class. On talking with 
some of the class they said: 'Mr. Stableton, in an examina- 

1 " Examinations, How?" School and Home Education, June, 1914. 

H 



98 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

tion it is fair for everybody to have the same show, and it is 
not a fair examination when every one does not have the same 
show.' ' We don't believe in cheating, but when the teacher 
lets every one who wants to cheat, cheat, and grades them 
just as if they had been honest, all we can do is to get help 
just as the cheaters do, so that all of us may have the same 
chance.' ' We don't think we are dishonest, but we do think 
the teacher ought to make her examinations mean some- 
thing.' 'None of us is proud of the grades he gets in this 
kind of an examination.' " 

The paramount difficulty lies, then, in insuring the 
appropriate attitude in the pupil, — the attitude of re- 
sponsibility as a member of the group for the conduct of 
all of the members of the group, including himself. No 
one in his right mind could assume that this is a simple 
problem to be solved merely by the establishment of cer- 
tain forms of government, — the difficulties of develop- 
ing in adult communities an effective group or collective 
responsibility are all too discouraging. Nor do we think 
that it would be at all wise to attempt through a forcing 
process to stimulate group responsibility in a pupil 
community to a point that would be unattainable in an 
adult community. Generally speaking, the operation of 
group sanctions is most effective when least in evidence. 
By this we mean that the pupils who are actively en- 
gaged in their work, who feel the responsibility for ful- 
filling the demands that fall upon them individually, 
will react as a group and in a very effective way against 
conduct that is inconsistent with their welfare and with 
the standards that have been tacitly accepted as govern- 



STIMULATING GROUP RESPONSIBILITY 99 

ing the situation. In short, the steps for transforming 
the unruly school suggested and outlined in the three 
preceding chapters, and other measures of an analogous 
type, should serve automatically to create the appro- 
priate social spirit, — to make the individual feel the 
compelling power of the group standards toward right 
kinds of conduct. 

Specific Measures that may be taken to intensify 
Group Responsibility: Demanding Collective Reparation 
for Collective Offenses. — We have just said that it will 
probably be less wise to force group responsibility than 
to depend upon its automatic development through the 
operation of other factors. There are, however, occa- 
sions when this group responsibility can and should be 
directly appealed to, and if these occasions are handled 
skillfully, the net outcome should be an increased effi- 
ciency of this force in controlling the behavior of indi- 
viduals. An instance quite typical of such an occasion 
is furnished in the following case : * 

Mr. McCormack, principal of a large high school, was 
confronted with the imminent danger of a mutiny caused by 
a very trivial occurrence at a rehearsal of the school chorus. 
A boy of sensitive and refractory temperament wore a pair 
of low shoes to rehearsal. A mischievous fellow pupil, sitting 
behind him, reached under the seat and removed one of the 
shoes which was promptly passed around among the male 
members of the chorus. A little disturbance was thus caused, 
and the teacher reprimanded the pupil who had lost his shoe, 

1 T. J. McCormack, "Utilizing Moral Crises for Ethical Instruction," 
School and Home Education, December, 1913, pp. 123 ff. 



IOO SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

and finally sent him from the room. "The student departed 
from the room, vowing he would never enter the organization 
again ; and his muttering having been overheard by his com- 
rades, some of them incidentally remarked that if he were 
not allowed to reenter the chorus, they would also refuse to 
participate in its exercises. A mutual understanding or mis- 
understanding, of which no one was the author and no one was 
the ringleader, arose; an indefinable atmosphere of mutiny 
and conspiracy which no one could trace to its origin and 
font was created. On the following day the boys of the 
chorus did not appear, and the calamitous situation was 
created." 

A situation of this sort is the most difficult of all disciplin- 
ary difficulties to deal with. The first principle of effective 
discipline is to locate responsibility for disorder in an individ- 
ual or in individuals. But here individual treatment was 
impossible. The offense was a group offense. "I then 
decided," says Mr. McCormack, " that the crime or offense 
that had been committed was a collective crime or offense, 
and should receive a collective solution. I called the boys of 
the chorus together in conference ; told them frankly of the 
difficulty in which I had been placed ; that a grave offense, 
in fact the gravest possible offense against a school, a society, 
or a nation, had been committed, — namely, a mutiny, a con- 
spiracy, which was tantamount to treason ; that the offense 
had not been committed by an individual and hence no in- 
dividual could be punished ; that a social or institutional in- 
justice had been committed, and that collective, institutional 
amends should be made. I showed them how, if such prac- 
tices were continued, the life and peace of the school would 
be threatened, that at present the position and livelihood of 
one teacher were at stake, and depicted how, out of an in- 
significant and trivial accident, by a subtle social interplay 
of thoughtless words and actions, a situation had been created 



STIMULATING GROUP RESPONSIBILITY IOI 

which, though it had to be removed, every one saw and felt 
I was powerless to resolve. I asked them as friends if such 
were not the case ; told them that I knew that not a single 
individual person present had been guilty of the offense com- 
mitted ; that it was a collective crime with which they had 
only partly and ignorantly identified themselves, but that 
it was a hideous reality nevertheless." 

The boys were deeply impressed with this serious out- 
come of a careless prank, and the principal availed himself 
of the psychological moment to show what society would 
justify him in doing in a case of this sort. He pointed out 
that he could take any member of the offending group and 
punish him for the sins of the group as a whole. He showed 
that this had been done in the past and cited the case of the 
Chicago anarchists. "This idea of the punishment of the 
innocent seemed to horrify them, but the manner in which 
we had approached our problem had made the situation and 
the significance of all its dangers so apparent and real that 
it began to dawn upon them that I was not only right, but 
also not so powerless as I had professed to be. I had, in 
other words, taught them an impressive lesson in civics and 
in social and institutional ethics. 

"And what was the result? The lesson, and not the 
misdemeanor, now occupied the forefront of our collective 
thought. Both students and I felt that the lesson towered 
ineffably above the crime, and in our corporate joy of moral 
conquest, we were almost glad that the moral dereliction had 
occurred." 

With this favorable attitude, the solution was simple. 
The principal proposed a collective apology as a proper pun- 
ishment of the group for this collective offense, and this 
apology was presented before the whole school by a selected 
spokesman who chanced to be the lad whose missing shoe had 
given rise to all of the difficulty. "The sequel was felicitous 



102 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

in the extreme. Everybody felt relieved and happy, and 
everybody felt satisfied that justice to all parties had been 
done. Incidentally, all members concerned learned a lesson 
in civic and social responsibility, in the danger of conspiracies, 
in the heartlessness of the law, and in the possibility of extrica- 
tion from difficult circumstances with credit to all concerned." 

Rallying the Pupils to support the Good Name of the 
School. — One occasion at which a direct appeal may be 
made to the responsibility of the group as a whole, then, 
is when collective offenses analogous to that just de- 
scribed have been committed, and can be adequately 
met only by collective reparation. Another legitimate 
occasion is when the good name of the school as a whole 
is at stake, and the pupils can be rallied to support the 
school's reputation. Excellent instances of this are fur- 
nished by the " school surveys " which have been so 
numerous within the past few years. During a survey, 
a system of schools is necessarily " on its best behavior." 
This spirit animates every teacher and is likely to ani- 
mate every pupil. Almost without exception, 1 the re- 
ports of these surveys remark upon the excellent order 
and discipline that the investigators found in inspecting 
classroom conditions. Some of the reports state that in 
visiting hundreds of classrooms, not a single case of dis- 
order was found. Any one even slightly familiar with 
school work would conclude at once that this condition 
is brought about by the presence of investigators and 

1 The notable exception is the Report of the New York School 
Inquiry. 



STIMULATING GROUP RESPONSIBILITY IO3 

the tension of a situation that all recognize as critical. 
The reports go further than is necessary when they imply 
that this represents permanent and long-existing con- 
ditions in a large system of schools. But, even if the 
excellent order is due in part to the presence of an in- 
vestigating body, one would not deny for a moment its 
" tonic " effect upon the future conduct of the pupils. 
Their group loyalty has been appealed to, and appealed 
to effectively. Their collective pride has been aroused, 
and one of the first steps in the development of a healthful 
and permanent " fashion of order " has been taken. 

Encouraging Pupils to criticize One Another. — Un- 
doubtedly the encouragement of mutual criticism among 
pupils may be made an effective device for securing 
attention, and it may perhaps be listed as one means 
of stimulating group responsibility. The practice, how- 
ever, involves rather serious dangers. Children who 
come to look upon correcting others as a virtue are 
likely to become hypercritical and disagreeable, if not 
unbearable. Nevertheless, the device rests upon very 
powerful instinctive forces, and if it could be employed 
without deleterious results, there would be no doubt of 
its value. Some teachers certainly employ it very 
effectively. 

One teacher writes to me as follows: "I have charge of 
an eighth-grade grammar class comprising thirty-eight 
pupils. There are six or seven ' troublesome' pupils in the 
class. As a method of arousing interest and handling the 
questions of discipline, I have encouraged the pupils to 



104 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

criticize each other. There are a few leaders in the class 
who took to the plan quickly, and their interest and effort 
brought the other members forward. While one pupil is 
reciting, the class listens attentively. After the pupil has 
finished, those who have doubts regarding the correctness of 
the recitation rise, and, in a courteous manner, ask questions 
(more or less 'leading') of the one who has made the mistake. 
Often the questions are so direct that the one who has made 
the mistake is able at once to make his own correction. 

"I have seen timid pupils become so interested in par- 
ticipating in the 'game' that timidity slipped from them at 
once. The consciousness that they 'knew' gave them a 
confidence that they had not felt before. . . . During 
five months' trial of this plan, I have never seen a pupil 
irritated or angry because of a criticism. One boy has given 
me great help. He has been most persistent after every 
mistake. This persistency has aroused every other member 
of the class to the closest attention when he recites to see if, 
by any chance, some one may not 'come back at him' effec- 
tively. But through it all there is the spirit of good com- 
radeship." 

The need of caution in the employment of this device 
has perhaps been sufficiently emphasized, but a practi- 
cal corrective that will tend to offset the obvious 
dangers may be suggested. It has come to us from a 
successful superintendent who has seen clearly the 
dangers that the hypercritical spirit involves. 

"In all of our schools we seek to establish the proper 
attitude toward criticism. We fight sullenness and in every 
way we appeal to the pupils to avoid ' pouting.' For example, 
in the reading classes we ask the pupil to criticize his own 
reading, and to this end we suggest schemes for criticism. 



STIMULATING GROUP RESPONSIBILITY 105 

When a pupil admits that he has not read as well as he should, 
he is requested to try again. This procedure is varied, of 
course, for different subjects, but always we try to have 
the child appreciate the necessity for criticism and correc- 
tion, and to realize that those who criticize are not neces- 
sarily his enemies." 

Espionage and Talebearing as related to Group 
Responsibility. — One of the marked difficulties with all 
forms of pupil or student self-government that place 
responsibility directly and explicitly in the hands of the 
pupils or students themselves is that an ethical question 
of large importance in the eyes of children and youth is 
inevitably raised to the fore. The " honor system," for 
example, compels the student to report those among his 
fellows who cheat on examinations; the " pupil-city" 
or " school-city " forms of government have their officers 
corresponding to the police, and also encourage in all 
possible ways the reporting of offenses by " citizens." 
An organized and carefully fostered system of espionage 
is a necessary part of the formal machinery. 

The influence of organized forms of pupil self-govern- 
ment in teaching pupils to guard their own rights through 
informing on offenders, of distinguishing between "tat- 
tling " and giving testimony, is, indeed, urged by some 
of the propagandists of this movement. Ray, 1 for ex- 
ample, in commending an organized system in which 
espionage plays an important part, advances the follow- 
ing argument : 

1 J. T. Ray, Democratic Government of Schools, Bloomington, 111. ; 
quoted by King, Social Aspects of Education, p. 295. 



106 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

"Will not the young man who thinks it right not to tell 
on his schoolmates, and who is allowed to believe so, make 
the future alderman who thinks it honorable to refuse to 
expose the briber who offered him a thousand dollars for his 
vote? In short, will not the man be what the boy was 
taught to be? Can the impure spring have flowing from it 
anything but an impure stream ? As the child's community 
life is in school, so will be his civic life in after years. 

"What should school life teach the boy? It should teach 
him that he is part of the school community — responsible 
for its acts, and affected by every act of his schoolmates. 
He should, therefore, be taught that the Mosaic law, the 
English common law, and the statute law of his state make 
it the duty of every citizen to testify when called upon; 
that hiding a crime makes him a party to it. He has, there- 
fore, no right to set these principles aside in his school life, 
either because of his own wishes, or the false idea of the 
teacher. He should be taught to see clearly that the restric- 
tions placed upon his actions in school are due chiefly to the 
abuse of liberties by a few of his schoolmates, and he should, 
therefore, be directly interested in the conduct of these 
schoolmates. He should be taught to feel that the rightly 
disposed boys should assert themselves as positively and 
persistently for good conduct as the careless or indifferent 
boys do for evil." 

Can an effective group responsibility be engendered 
without an organized system which rests upon a system 
of mutual espionage? It is true that the espionage 
which these organized systems involve is somewhat 
different from that type of reporting offenses which has 
been stigmatized for untold generations as " talebear- 
ing,' ' for these systems usually involve the organization 



STIMULATING GROUP RESPONSIBILITY 107 

of a pupil court before which offenders are tried and 
before which the " testimony " is given. Notwithstand- 
ing this condition, however, the system has a certain 
fundamental defect : it is artificial, — a more or less 
literal imitation of the cumbrous and far from perfect 
system which has gradually developed in adult society ; 
it has not evolved naturally in a juvenile society to meet 
the needs of that society. The boy who believes that 
telling on his mates is contemptible may grow up to be 
an " undesirable citizen " because of his later unwilling- 
ness to report offenses in adult society. But the boy 
who is taught that espionage is a virtue (and he will 
not distinguish very clearly between " talebearing " 
and " giving testimony ") may also develop into a type 
of citizen that is to the minds of some equally undesir- 
able, — the officious meddler and the inveterate scandal- 
monger. Adult society has sanctioned the giving of 
testimony against offenders, but it has hedged it about 
by elaborate safeguards, and has recognized that it is a 
necessity reserved for serious cases which imperil social 
welfare. It is indeed a necessity born of the conditions 
of social survival; it is a virtue because of its social 
necessity, not a necessity because of its inherent virtue. 
Until it is demonstrated that the school group needs 
this kind of a virtue for its survival, it may be safely 
concluded that the deeply seated prejudice against tale- 
bearing and irresponsible espionage has a worth and a 
meaning that merit respectful consideration and investi- 
gation before the prejudice is abandoned. 



108 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

An interesting questionnaire investigation of the attitude 
of men and women toward the prejudice against talebearing 
was made by H. E. Hall and reported in The Outlook. 1 A 
hypothetical situation was described. Two boys were play- 
ing at school. "A" told "B" that he would throw a snow- 
ball through a school window. "B" did not reply. "A" 
carried out his promise and "B" witnessed the deed. The 
teacher asked each boy singly if he knew who broke the 
window, and if he did, to name the culprit. Mr. Hall then 
raised the following questions: (i) What should "B" say 
when asked if he knew who broke the window? (2) What 
should he say when asked to name the culprit ? (3) Should 
the teacher have asked the questions? (4) Should the 
teacher have the same right as a court in compelling testi- 
mony? (5) Should children in general be taught in the 
schools that it is their duty to tell the truth about wrong- 
doing when questioned by one in authority? 

The answers received from teachers, from men and women 
in other walks of life, and from school children themselves 
indicate a bewildering variety of conviction and opinion. 
The various replies as published in The Outlook would make 
— allowing for some little "coloring" which would be un- 
consciously introduced to make the anecdotes as interesting 
as possible — an excellent "source book" for the study of 
school ethics. It is sufficient to say in the present connec- 
tion that one will find in the replies published, respectable 
and numerous company, upon whichever side of the con- 
troversy he desires to align himself. 

While occasions may arise when it will be necessary 
to compel an individual to give information regarding 

1 "Who Broke the Window?" The Outlook, Jan. 11, 1913, pp. 75 B-, 
and subsequent issues. 



STIMULATING GROUP RESPONSIBILITY 109 

the misdeeds of another, steps should first be taken to 
obtain the information from the culprit himself. One 
teacher gives the following suggestions: Where a fault 
cannot be definitely located at the outset, and where it 
is particularly inimical to the welfare of the school, he 
calls attention, day after day, very briefly to the mis- 
demeanor, stating that he expects the guilty individual 
to come to him in private, tell him all about it, and 
make the proper reparation. This continual impres- 
sion, he tells us, invariably brings about the desired 
result. Sooner or later, — and usually before the direc- 
tion has been repeated many times, — the offender 
comes forth and the matter is settled. It is very likely 
that, where others know about the matter, a very salu- 
tary influence will be exerted upon the individual chiefly 
concerned to make the confession. This, at any rate, 
is the explanation that the teacher in question offers 
for the unvarying success which he has met in applying 
this method. Every one who is involved is restive and 
unhappy until the matter is cleared up, — provided one 
does not permit it to be forgotten. There is good psy- 
chology in the suggestion. 

Pupil-Government Organizations may serve Tem- 
porary Purposes. — The employment of the self-govern- 
ment plan as a temporary device for initiating something 
akin to group responsibility may, however, be clearly 
justified in its results. Here the various activities par- 
take of the nature of a " game" by means of which the 
machinery of civil government may be made intelli- 



IIO SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

gible to the pupils. The following account illustrates the 
way in which the plan may work for a brief period at 
least : 

"The class contained a small proportion of pupils who 
lacked a 'sense' of personal responsibility, and two pupils 
who were real 'problems.' We decided to organize a legis- 
lative body. This was done in due form. The legislature 
then elected a sergeant-at-arms who, in turn, appointed 
deputies. The watchword of the class became 'Self-Con- 
trol'; the motto, 'He who can govern himself can govern 
a nation.' The sergeant-at-arms and his deputies per- 
formed their duties in a dignified and courteous manner. 
There was no suggestion of the ' monitor ' attitude. 

"Each day the sergeant would appoint some member to 
bring to the class the following morning some incident in 
which self-control played an important part. This incident 
was related as part of the morning exercises. During the 
day the sergeant-at-arms and his deputies had all matters 
pertaining to discipline and order in charge. These duties 
involved certain routine activities concerning the care of the 
room, the bookshelves, blackboards, and plants. In cases 
of 'discipline' the sergeant or a deputy would courteously 
admonish or warn an offender. If the offense was con- 
tinued, a note was made of the error. 

"On Friday evening the impeachment committee met. 
The defendant with his witnesses and attorney appeared 
before the judge and the jury. Testimony was given and 
arguments were advanced. The jury then retired and dis- 
cussed the evidence. The sentence, imposed by the judge 
was always taken most seriously by the culprit and by his 
fellows. 

"The plan worked so well that it was continued through 
the term." 



STIMULATING GROUP RESPONSIBILITY III 

It should be very clear to one at all familiar with 
children that a device of this type may work admirably 
for a brief period, but that extreme caution should be 
exercised in continuing beyond the point where the 
pupils fail to take it seriously. This point will almost 
certainly be reached sooner or later, and thereafter the 
order of the school is likely to be seriously imperiled by 
its operation. 

Segregating Group Responsibility by conferring Au- 
thority on Older Pupils : the English System. — One 
way in which to escape the pitfalls of the schemes of 
pupil self-government that have been experimented with 
in American schools is illustrated by the system developed 
by Thomas Arnold at Rugby and imitated very success- 
fully by other of the English boarding schools for boys 
— and lately, indeed, introduced in a modified form into 
day schools by Professor J. J. Findlay, of Manchester. 1 
This system, instead of being a blind imitation of the 
forms of adult government, is both a natural evolution 
from the needs and nature of school life and a much 
more adequate representation of the actual adult situa- 
tion than is the " pupil-city " organization. In essence 
it selects the older pupils who have proved their worth, 
and makes them responsible for the younger pupils. 
Adults and children look upon espionage quite differently 
when it is practiced by one to whom authority has been 
duly delegated than when it emanates from one's own 
peers; and the English system has emphasized this 
1 School Review, vol. xv, pp. 744 ff. ; vol. xvi, pp. 601 ££. 



112 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

vital difference. Both responsibility and authority are 
natural attributes of maturity and demonstrated ability ; 
they do not sit well on young shoulders ; and youth, 
of course, is a relative matter ; to the child of ten, his 
fellow of fifteen is well fitted with years. 

The English system, however, could hardly be applied 
to American conditions except under wide modifications. 
The grouping together of pupils of the same age (the 
same mental age, at any rate) is much more strongly 
characteristic of American than of English schools, and 
the advantage that might accrue to placing responsi- 
bility in the hands of older pupils is largely unavailable. 
There are, perhaps, some suggestions for experimenta- 
tion in graded elementary schools and in high schools. 
It may be that the appointment of " prefects" from the 
upper classes, giving them some measure of authority 
over the control of pupils in the school yard, might issue 
in commendable results in the development of a sense of 
responsibility upon the part of the older pupils, and in 
stimulating the younger pupils to strive for similar rec- 
ognition when their turn should come. 

The Development of the " Fashion " of Good Order 
does away with the Necessity for Formal Systems of 
Self-Government. — The answer to the question, Can 
group responsibility be developed without a system of 
mutual espionage ? is best found in concrete cases — 
and these cases can be multiplied almost indefinitely 
in the better American school systems. In these schools, 
there is much self-government, but it is unencumbered 



STIMULATING GROUP RESPONSIBILITY 113 

by forms and institutions. It is a type of self-govern- 
ment adapted to the needs of the community. There 
are no courts through which to express social disap- 
proval. There is no need for courts. There are no 
officers in addition to the regular school authorities, and 
the control of these officials is little in evidence. There 
is social disapproval, and there is coercion by the social 
group, but it works in silent and half- conscious ways, pre- 
cisely as social disapproval works in adult communities. 

Into a high school of this type an adolescent boy once 
came — " cocky," conceited, burning to " show off." 
At his first recitation, he ventured an impudent sally, 
and looked about him for the applause that his former 
experiences in another type of school had led him to 
expect. The class took no apparent notice of his im- 
pudent remark. The teacher said nothing to him, but 
simply passed on to another pupil in recitation. It 
took this boy two days to learn that a type of school 
spirit with which he was entirely unfamiliar governed 
that school. It took him six months to undo among 
his fellows the disastrous results of those first two days. 
There was no outward coercion. It was the silent, 
resistless force of social opinion telling him in unmistak- 
able terms that he had made a fool of himself. It is 
a harsh corrective, — the rod would sometimes be far 
easier to bear. But it is effective — and it is something 
more: it is the normal way in which adult society exerts 
its coercive force over its component members. 

The social sanctions in this particular school had been 



114 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

turned in the direction of order and industry. The self- 
government was as complete as it can ever profitably be 
in an immature social group. The lessons that emanated 
from a school life of this type are lessons that will 
" function " later. 

The Role of Pupil Organizations in School Govern- 
ment. — There are, however, certain types of organiza- 
tion, not concerned with the government of the school 
as a whole, that may do a great deal to help develop 
this group responsibility. Clubs and societies formed 
for social, literary, athletic, or dramatic purposes, and 
enrolling in the aggregate practically the entire student 
body, form a most fruitful field for nurturing the group 
consciousness and building up an effective esprit de corps. 
It is clear that the expressions of the social impulses in 
the formation of the organizations may work for evil as 
easily as for good, and their existence may mean the de- 
velopment of the very worst types of social sanctions. 
The history of the high school fraternity sufficiently 
demonstrates that something more than a mere provi- 
sion for the expression of social impulses is needed. 
There must be on the part of the school authorities a 
measure of supervision, most tactfully administered, if 
the valuable outcomes of the school's social life are to 
be realized. Once started in the right direction, the pupil 
organizations will fulfill an important function in setting 
and maintaining worthy standards of conduct; started 
in the wrong way, they may be hotbeds of trouble, of 
disaffection, and even of immorality and vice. 



STIMULATING GROUP RESPONSIBILITY II^ 

How to establish the right precedent in this matter, 
and particularly how to reorganize a social situation 
that has become demoralized are themes that have been 
vigorously discussed by high school workers. The fol- 
lowing suggestions are taken from a recent treatment of 
the problem : x 

" . . . Every society that receives recognition should 
have its 'advisory' board. The word l advisory' is used 
rather than ' control ' or any other word, because it is intended 
that the board shall act in just that capacity. The board 
should consist of two teachers who are chosen by the pupils 
and approved by the principal, and of two or more students, 
including the president and secretary — according to the 
size of the organization, — and also the principal as an ex 
officio member. The teachers on the board are not to act 
as censors, but as leaders who are interested' in the work of 
the society, who will attend its meetings, and who, by their 
wisdom and experience, will lead the organization success- 
fully in its undertakings. In this way there can be no pos- 
sible clash between students and faculty, and harmonious 
cooperation will be the result/' 

Mr. Davis further recommends that the teachers who 
serve on these various advisory boards unite, under the 
chairmanship of the principal, as an "advisory council" 
charged with the general administration of all student social 
affairs. The pupils who serve on the advisory boards, with 
certain other pupils elected at large, may profitably be or- 
ganized into a student council to cooperate with the advisory 
council of teachers. 

1 Jesse B. Davis, "The Administration of the Social Activities of 
High School Pupils," in The Modem High School (edited by C. H. 
Johnston), New York, 1914, pp. 410 ff. 



Il6 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

These recommendations apply chiefly to the large 
and medium-sized high schools and to large grammar 
schools organized on the departmental plan. There is 
no reason, however, why, in smaller high schools and even 
in upper-grade classrooms, the social propensities of 
the pupil body may not be profitably directed through 
the organization of literary, social, and athletic clubs. 
The " machinery " here should be restricted to the few 
forms and provisions that are absolutely essential 
to the administration of social affairs in the interests 
of a wholesome school spirit. A modified form of Mr. 
Davis's plan might well be tried even in these small 
schools, — for the theory back of this proposal seems to 
be entirely consistent with the fundamental principle 
that we have repeatedly emphasized, — namely, the 
establishment of relationships of sympathetic coopera- 
tion between the teacher and pupil body to the end 
that the teacher while still preserving his authority and 
recognizing his responsibility, will be looked upon by 
the pupils as a guide and counselor rather than as a task- 
master. And this, after all, is the important relation- 
ship to be preserved in all of the efforts that are made 
to utilize the social instincts and impulses of the pupils 
themselves in establishing the " fashion " of order and 
industry throughout the school. 

Questions and Exercises 

i. Is it true in your own experience that boys and girls 
in school will strive for the approval and admiration of their 



STIMULATING GROUP RESPONSIBILITY 117 

fellows more frequently and more whole-heartedly than for 
the approval of their teachers? In any case, which would 
be the more desirable motive from the point of view of the 
best development of the child? 

2. Name some of the steps that you would take to make 
yourself in the eyes of your pupils a counselor, leader, and 
guide rather than a master or a martinet. In how far would 
you strive to retain the prerogatives of the master ? 

3. What are some of the helpful analogies between the 
efficient teacher and the efficient parent; between the effi- 
cient teacher and the efficient employer of men in industry ; 
between the efficient teacher and the efficient military com- 
mander? Name in each case some of the points at which 
the analogy must be given up. 

4. Would you agree with the statement that measures 
which the pupil interprets as designed to purchase order 
with favors are to be condemned? Are there any excep- 
tions to this principle? 

5. What is the difference between the principle, "No 
honesty, no trust," and the apparently converse principle, 
"No trust, no honesty"? Suppose the latter principle to 
be generally accepted, what results can you conceive to be 
inevitable ? 

6. What are the advantages and dangers of placing the 
responsibility for the conduct of individual pupils upon the 
class as a whole? At what points is the analogy with adult 
self-government justified ? At what points does this analogy 
fail? 

7. Cite instances among the nations of the world where 
the mere form of self-government does not insure real self- 
government. As you understand such nations, where does 
the chief difficulty seem to lie? 

8. Can you furnish instances, similar to that given in the 
text, which illustrate offenses for which the group rather 



Il8 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

than any single individual must be held primarily respon- 
sible? In your opinion, if the individual responsibility can- 
not be located, is it legitimate to inflict summary punishment 
upon one or more members of the group as reparation for 
the group offense? If this is ever justified, under what 
conditions and why ? Are there analogies in civil or military 
government? (For example, was the alleged summary 
punishment of individual Belgian civilians by the German 
army of invasion an analogous case?) 

9. Why has "talebearing" or "tattling" come to have 
so unsavory a name ? Is its bad repute justified ? What is 
your own immediate reaction toward a "tattler"? Under 
what conditions, if any, would you justify talebearing ? 

10. What are some of the dangers of encouraging school 
children to report the faults and misdemeanors of their 
fellows? Can you frame a principle that will be a service- 
able guide to the teacher in discouraging this practice? 

11. How would you answer the questions stated on p. 
108, regarding the broken window ? 

12. What are the important differences between a system 
of "pupil self-government" as this term is ordinarily under- 
stood and the plan of delegating responsibility to the older 
pupils ? Are there any analogies between the latter practice 
and the actual workings of effective self-government in an 
adult society? 



CHAPTER VIII 

Transforming the Unruly School : (E) The Tonic 
Influence of a Regimen of Work 

The various steps that may be taken to establish a 
" fashion " of order and industry in an unruly school 
would be incomplete without a reference to the tonic 
effect of a systematic " regimen of work." When we say 
that the school should develop in its pupils a " general 
habit of work," we are voicing a truism with which no 
one will disagree, but which offers the teacher no sugges- 
tion for actually establishing this desirable habit. Habits 
have an irritating tendency to be specific rather than 
general ; they must be built up as responses to particu- 
lar situations. The specific habit that the pupils of an 
unruly school need to establish is the habit of settling into 
the attitude of work and industry at a certain definite time 
and of maintaining this attitude during a certain definite 
period. Work time must be distinctly understood as 
a time when nothing but work in the sense of serious and 
aggressive effort will be tolerated. 

The Disciplinary Effect of a Regimen of Work. — 
The child or youth is to be envied whose lot is cast in 
a well-regulated and well-disciplined school, where this 
regimen has been thoroughly established. There is 

119 



120 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

a most effective inspiration in the community of active, 
aggressive concentration which such a school typifies. 
It is distinctly a civilizing agency, making for systematic 
growth and development, and teaching the fundamental 
lessons of self-control and self-discipline through ac- 
quainting the child with the value of systematic effort, 
and through accustoming him to the necessity for holding 
in leash momentary desire and impulse. It is one of the 
important steps to be taken in " making the work the 
master." 

The nine-o'clock bell strikes. The pupils who have been 
talking and playing together, freely and spontaneously, 
instantly assume another attitude. The shouting and the 
laughter — most excellent in their place — cease. The pu- 
pils pass quietly to their rooms. A few moments devoted 
to opening exercises and the work of the day is begun cheer- 
fully and vigorously. Systematically, step by step, the prob- 
lems are solved, the projects pushed to completion, the les- 
sons mastered. An hour and a half of buzzing industry 
passes. Then the bell rings and for fifteen or twenty minutes 
the older spirit of freedom and play reigns supreme. Then 
back again to the work. 

One who participates in this type of daily program, work- 
ing with competent, sympathetic teachers who are them- 
selves inspired by the quiet, orderly, pervasive atmosphere 
of effort and accomplishment, who will brook neither shirk- 
ing nor shamming, and yet who know how to make the work 
itself compel the effort, can hardly fail to acquire the all- 
important attitude implied in the phrase "general habit of 
work." We are tempted to say that eight or twelve years 
of this regimen would, almost independently of the other 



THE REGIMEN OE WORK 121 

lessons learned in school, fit the pupil for the important 
duties of life. Certainly it would contribute an indispens- 
able element toward this end. 

Establishing the Regimen. — But how to establish 
this specific habit in all of the pupils of an unruly school 
is quite another matter ; for, by hypothesis, this is the 
type of program that is most unfashionable here. 

The first suggestion to the teacher is to have a good 
working " time-table " and carry it through to the letter. 
There is something tonic in the clean-cutness of time 
edges; in opening on the minute and closing on the 
minute. There is something bracing in the brisk and 
alert beginning, in a clear and decisive close ; and if a 
" brisk " carrying through of the program is added, the 
formula is complete. Through the power of suggestion, 
mental alertness spreads like a contagion. And if this 
atmosphere can be created at the outset, the chances 
are that the desirable habit will be formed with a 
minimum of trouble. There are few precepts of school 
management more significant than that which empha- 
sizes the importance of the right start. 1 

Nervous Tension must be Avoided. — But the diffi- 
culty lies not so much in starting vigorously as in per- 
sisting vigorously and in closing vigorously. And the 
kind of vigor that means undue nervous strain and ten- 
sion is certain to defeat its own purpose because it uses 
up all of one's energies at the outset and leaves one help- 
less at the equally critical close. It has furthermore 

1 Cf . the writer's Classroom Management, New York, 1907, ch. ii. 



1.22 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

the wrong kind of suggestive influence upon the pupils. 
We have seen teachers gather themselves together as 
for a fray ; bustling about like busy little switch engines 
in the freight yards ; making much rasping and mechanical 
noise. But what is needed is not so much the bustle 
and confusion of the freight yards as the sustained 
efficiency of the long straightaway run ; steadily onward 
across the fields and meadows and through the woods ; 
taking the grades slowly but easily; keeping plenty of 
reserve power for the steeper climbs ; coasting down the 
slopes; and pulling in " on the dot" at the terminal. 
Huxley, coming up New York harbor, caught the spirit 
of the tugboat, and exclaimed enthusiastically that he 
would rather be a tugboat than any other thing not 
human. There is a certain type of inspiration in a tug- 
boat and in a switch engine. But it is a nervous, jerky 
inspiration; and what we need in school manage- 
ment is the sustained and restrained efficiency that 
suggests reserve strength quite beyond the needs of 
the present moment. It is this type of " vigor " that 
should be joined with the " business man's " virtues of 
promptness, alertness, and concentration in attempting 
to establish a wholesome regimen of work in the unruly 
school. 

The Dirigibility of Enthusiasm. — All of this involves, 
it may be objected, an enthusiasm for the work of teach- 
ing that cannot be made " out of the whole cloth." 
To be vigorous and alert from nine until four ; to keep 
up the flames of inspiration when every school condition 



THE REGIMEN OF WORK 1 23 

favors their extinction; to engender enthusiasm over 
subject matter that one repeats to two or three differ- 
ent classes every year, or (in the high school) even 
to four or five different sections every day, — this 
seems to call for a miracle quite beyond human achieve- 
ment. 

If one were to acquiesce in the doctrine of interest 
that is now current, one would agree that enthusiasm 
under these conditions is impossible; for this doctrine 
seems to imply that interest is always determined by 
the activity and never by the agent himself, — that 
unless the task attracts in itself, interest and enthusiasm 
cannot be engendered. This theory is partly true of the 
child and of the weak, undisciplined adult ; and with 
individuals of this type, little dependence can be placed 
upon the power to engender enthusiasm over one's work 
whether the work is intrinsically attractive or not. 
But for the tyro in teaching one of the first lessons to 
learn is that enthusiasms are dirigible; in some measure 
they can be directed at will. In just what measure will 
vary with individuals, but the power to become interested 
in one's work may be taken as one of the important 
characteristics of the competent worker. 1 Certainly 
the teacher who hopes to succeed must learn how to 
interest himself in each lesson that he teaches. Professor 
Phelps 2 states the case in words that ring true : 

1 Cf. the discussion of the relation of discipline to the doctrine of 
interest, ch. xiv. 

2 W. L. Phelps, Teaching in School and College, New York, 191 2, 
p. 16. 



124 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

"Constant and tremendous enthusiasm for the subject 
taught is essential. When one is actually teaching it, this 
thing, whatever it may be, should seem to be the most im- 
portant thing in time or eternity. The late President Har- 
per, who was one of the most brilliant teachers I have ever 
known, told me that he had taught the first verse of the first 
chapter of Genesis I have forgotten how many thousand 
times. I remarked that he always seemed enthusiastic. 
He said: 'Sometimes I feel wildly enthusiastic; at other 
times I have no enthusiasm at all. When I have no enthu- 
siasm, then I create it.' It is absurd that a teacher should 
allow a headache or a sleepless night to affect his teaching. 
If his health will permit him to enter the classroom, he must 
teach with zeal and vigor." 

Enemies of Enthusiasm. — A phase of the art of teach- 
ing so important as this merits the most careful considera- 
tion from those who are charged with the administration 
of schools. An important part of the duty of a super- 
intendent or principal in operating his schools with 
maximal efficiency is to insure those conditions that will 
make it possible for every teacher to approach his or her 
task with maximal enthusiasm and interest. The ideal 
administrator relieves those who do the actual teaching 
just as far as possible from tasks and worries that will 
distract them from their class work. He reduces their 
clerical labors to the lowest possible minimum ; delegates 
the duties of general administration and control to 
teachers who are relieved of teaching duties in propor- 
tion; and even minimizes the importance of his own 
office and of " executive work " in general in order that 



THE REGIMEN OF WORK 125 

both teachers and pupils may look upon the work of the 
classroom as the all-important business for which the 
school exists. But unhappily there are many supervisors 
and administrators who do not take this broad and stim- 
ulating view of their function. They load down their 
teachers with extra-scholastic duties and worries; they 
magnify the importance of clerical, administrative, and 
executive functions ; they break into the regular routine 
for trivial reasons, and so undo much that the teacher 
has accomplished toward establishing a wholesome 
regimen of work ; they cater to the good will of the pupil- 
body and of laymen by placing athletics, dramatics, 
exhibitions, and other " show " activities on a higher 
plane than systematic scholastic effort. Under condi- 
tions of this sort, the handicap of the teacher in keeping 
up an inspiring enthusiasm for his own work is greatly 
increased. 

Again, the short-sighted criticisms of school work in- 
tensify the difficulty of maintaining enthusiasm by 
querulously calling into question or contemptuously 
" pooh-poohing " the value of certain subjects that 
teachers are employed to teach. This condition is in- 
evitable during a transitional period such as the pres- 
ent, when criticism is the " fashion " and when every 
traditional subject is under the limelight of condem- 
nation. It is rather difficult to engender enthusiasm 
over a subject that is branded from the housetops 
as a waste of time, or over processes once thought to 
be educational in their effect that are now believed by 



126 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

certain influential reformers to be worthless. There 
will probably be no relief from this handicap until 
educators have reached an agreement as to the worth- 
lessness or value of disputed subjects and then con- 
vince the public that their conclusions are sound. But 
there should be some consolation for the teachers who 
must teach subjects now " unpopular " in the fact that 
the last word has not yet been said, and that, in all 
likelihood, the charges that are made are overdrawn for 
polemical purposes. 

Nor are the teachers of the newer subjects relieved 
from their share of the irritation. Their efforts must 
undergo a certain measure of distrust from their col- 
leagues and they, too, must live through the critical period 
of establishing their subjects upon a firm basis. Perhaps 
their condition is no better, from the point of view of this 
handicap of distrust, than that of their colleagues in the 
older disciplines. 

Finally, there are the teachers who are forced through 
necessity to teach subjects for which they have neither 
inherent liking nor inherent ability. This condition is 
often found in the elementary school where each class- 
room teacher is commonly required to teach every 
subject in the program. Indeed the obvious difficulty 
of engendering enthusiasm for each and every topic has 
been one of the strongest arguments for introducing the 
departmental system of instruction and differentiated 
curriculums into the seventh and eighth grades. 

Even under these unfortunate handicaps, however, the 



THE REGIMEN OF WORK 1 27 

engendering of enthusiasm is not an impossible task as 
the experience of many teachers abundantly demonstrates. 
Some, indeed, draw inspiration from neglect, oppression, 
and opposition, and work all the more enthusiastically 
because the value of their work is questioned or its 
relative importance belittled. Others succeed in closing 
their minds to irritating distractions. Still others as- 
siduously cultivate the attitude of the ancient hero who 
was given the office of public scavenger ; striving, if their 
work cannot be an honor to them, to be an honor to 
their work. Some men may characterize this conscious 
guidance of enthusiasm as a species of self-deception ; 
but, recognizing its necessity and its efficacy in an imper- 
fect world, it would be far more kindly to laud it as a 
type of self-conquest. To do work that one believes to be 
unimportant or valueless merely for the sake of getting a 
living is to sell one's manhood or womanhood for a mess 
of pottage ; to do the work that one must do Just as well 
as it can be done and with all the enthusiasm that one 
can summon to the effort may be making a virtue of 
necessity, but it is also taking the first step toward making 
the work worthy and useful. If people are willing to pay 
in the coin of the realm for having the work done, the 
worker may rest assured that it meets some need, and if, 
under these conditions, he sets his hand to the task, a 
moral responsibility is his to carry it through in the best 
possible manner. 

Other enemies of enthusiasm lurk in the individual 
worries and cares of the teacher; in the ill health and 



128 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

reduced vitality that come from overwork, from insuffi- 
cient sleep, and from insufficient exercise. Still others 
are to be found in unsympathetic supervision which mixes 
querulous faultfinding with the minutest portions of 
praise and commendation. Every worker needs and 
profits infinitely by a recognition of his efficiency if he is 
efficient; the normal individual craves this reward far 
more keenly than he craves material rewards. An 
important function of the administrator is to develop 
between himself and his teachers the same attitude of 
sympathetic cooperation that we have described as 
characterizing the ideal relation of teacher and pupil. 
Just as surely as the superintendent is a taskmaster to 
his teachers, the teachers will be taskmasters to their 
pupils. 

Administrative Difficulties blocking the Development 
of the Regimen of Work. — In the foregoing paragraphs 
the importance of initiating and carrying through to the 
letter a well-constructed daily time-table has been 
emphasized, and the need of directing one's own enthu- 
siasm to the end that each unit of work may have the 
quality of businesslike " go " and vitality has been 
recognized. The difficulty of fulfilling the former condi- 
tion, however, merits a brief reference. One of the 
consequences of " enriching " the program of studies has 
been an increased difficulty of constructing such a time- 
table, and the still greater difficulty, once the time-table 
has been constructed, of holding to the limits that it sets. 
In addition to this, the introduction of new subjects 



THE REGIMEN OF WORK 1 29 

has necessitated administrative expedients that operate 
strongly against the development of the regimen of 
work. The whole system of " supervising" the so-called 
" special " subjects (music, drawing, nature study, and 
the like) seems to be a most cumbrous method of getting 
these subjects started in the schools. 

There is very good reason to look upon these more 
recent additions to the elementary school program as 
special activities to be looked after wherever possible by 
special teachers rather than by the regular teachers under 
the direction of special supervisors. This plan has been 
adopted by the Gary, Ind., schools l with excellent 
results. By this plan of organization, the special sub- 
jects (such as drawing, music, manual training, industrial 
work, physical training, and play) are taken care of by 
specialists, and find a place in the regular program. The 
" regular subjects " (such as arithmetic, geography, 
history, language, spelling, and the like) are divided 
between two regular teachers for each group of pupils, 
all of the grades being operated on the " departmental " 
plan of instruction to this extent. The great advantage 
of this organization from our present point of view is that 
it permits a regular program to be established and main- 
tained without the interruption and breaking up of rou- 
tine activities inevitable in a system where the regular 
teachers work under special supervisors. It also per- 
mits a large measure of specialization among the special 

1 See W. P. Burriss, The Gary System of Schools. Bui. U. S. Bureau 
of Education, No. 18, 1914. 



13O SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

teachers, and a goodly measure among the regular 
teachers, thereby obviating the demand that each teacher 
should teach all subjects with equal enthusiasm. 

Questions and Exercises 

1. Note the difference in the meetings of teachers or in 
the classes that you attend, between those that start promptly 
and briskly and those that start tardily and without "spirit, " 
Contrast the closing of the exercises from the same point of 
view. 

2. Discuss the relation of the following factors to the 
establishment of an effective " regimen of work" : the teacher's 
health; the ventilation of the schoolroom; the daily pro- 
gram or time-table; the daily preparation of the teacher; 
the routine of special supervision (music, drawing, manual 
training, etc.). 

3. In your own experience has the preparation of classes 
for special exercises, dramatics, pageants, and the like 
broken up the systematic regimen of daily work in a serious 
way? Would such exercises be likely to have this effect? 
If so, what precautions would you take to counteract the 
disturbing influence? 

4. Make a few tests to determine whether you can 
"direct" your own interests and enthusiasms. William 
James once suggested that every one should give his will " a 
little gratuitous exercise every day," — meaning thereby 
that we should each day do at least one task that we neither 
"have" to do nor like to do in order to "keep the faculty 
of effort alive." There is commonly some surprising self- 
revelation in attempting to follow this advice! 

5. Can you suggest ways in which the school may teach 
pupils to be masters of their interests and enthusiasms rather 
than to be mastered by them? 



CHAPTER IX 

Transforming the Unruly School : (F) The Place 
and Limitations of Coercive Measures 

The five preceding chapters have emphasized various 
methods of transforming the spirit of the unruly school 
primarily by insuring a transfer of the attention of the 
pupils from idling and mischief-making propensities to 
wholesome school activities. The methods hitherto 
proposed might be termed, from one point of view, 
" indirect " or " noncoercive " methods. Neither des- 
ignation is quite satisfactory, however, for they are 
really " direct " in their operation, and they distinctly 
contemplate a " coercive " influence. This influence, 
however, as has been pointed out, is confined to the 
coercion of the work in hand or of the social group, and 
aims to avoid a feeling upon the part of the pupil that 
he is being coerced by the teacher or by the school as 
such. 

It has not been intimated that there is no place for that 
type of coercion which the pupil distinctly locates in the 
personality of the teacher or in the authority of the 
school. There are, indeed, occasions in every school 
when this authority must be exercised in a direct, per- 
sonal way. These occasions, the type of treatment that 

131 



132 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

they justify, and the limitations of this type of treat- 
ment, will be the theme of the present chapter. 

The Scope of Direct Coercion. — Of all of the methods 
that may be employed in reducing the unruly school to 
law and order, we place last this method of direct coer- 
cion ; not because it is the last method to be employed, 
— a final, " last resort " when all else fails, — for 
sometimes (indeed, frequently) the first step in curbing 
an unruly spirit will be the direct exercise of authority ; 
but it should receive less emphasis than the methods 
heretofore discussed because it is upon the latter that the 
chief hope of working a permanent and educationally 
important influence must rest. The iron hand may be 
needed to initiate order and to teach the very basic 
lessons of respect for the authority of the law and for the 
rights of others ; but this initial lesson taught in this way 
must quickly be supplemented by other lessons in which 
the primary aim will be to engender something more than 
a willing or unwilling submission to established authority. 

This principle applies with equal force to all forms of civil 
government. Authority may compel because of its might, 
and often it must compel because of its responsibility ; but 
the type of order that is most effective is that in which the 
fact of coercion is least in evidence. In the city and the 
state, as in the school, the condition that is sought is a 
"fashion" of obeying the law and respecting the rights of 
others ; and while the forces that can coerce must be made 
plainly evident to those who can be appealed to in no other 
way, the wise executive keeps them from constantly and 
irritatingly impinging upon public attention. 



COERCIVE MEASURES 1 33 

The First Principle : Coercive Measures must be 
Swift, Certain, and Unerring. — The influence of a 
coercive force is very distinctly a function of the celerity 
and certainty with which it operates, for the important 
influence of such a force lies not so much in its actual 
operation as in its " moral " effect. From the point of 
view of disciplinary efiiciency, such bodies as the Mounted 
Police of Canada, the State Constabulary of Pennsyl- 
vania, and the Marine Corps of the United States Navy 
represent ideal types. The traditions of inflexible 
loyalty to purpose which have clustered about these 
organizations have made their very names pregnant 
with coercive force; and these traditions have accu- 
mulated, not because lawbreakers have come to fear 
the severity of the treatment which these police bodies 
accord to them, but rather because the operations are 
swift, certain, and incorruptible. The general respect in 
which the police functions of the Federal government 
are held as compared with the police functions of munic- 
ipalities and states, is due to the same factors. It is 
not a difference in the severity of the penalties imposed, 
but rather a difference in the relentless certainty with 
which crime is detected, located, and punished. The 
relative freedom of England from serious crime, as com- 
pared with the United States, has been attributed to a 
similar difference in the administration of justice in the 
two countries. 

The authority of those in charge of a school becomes a 
moral force in the discipline of the school under precisely 



134 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

the same conditions. "Few rules rigidly enforced " is 
a cardinal precept of school management. It is the 
writer's belief that, in this connection, rigor is the first 
principle of success. There are some activities and 
tendencies that must be absolutely prohibited in every 
school, and lapses from these requirements should be 
swiftly, vigorously, and persistently prosecuted. No 
step is more important than this in the transformation 
of an unruly school. 

What these forbidden activities are will vary in different 
schools. In old schoolhouses, crowded with children, it is 
necessary to have rigid rules with regard to the passing of 
lines and to the movement of the pupils through the corridors 
and on the stairways, to the end that perfect discipline may 
be maintained in case of fire or incipient panic. In modern 
fireproof structures, built with two or more well-lighted 
stairways with "landings" breaking the drop from floor to 
floor, with relatively low " risers," and with well-located 
exits, the danger from fire and panic is reduced to a mini- 
mum, and the same restrictions on the movements of pupils 
may not be necessary. Again, where school grounds are 
small, the safety of all pupils will require the prohibition of 
certain games which might well be permitted under other 
conditions. 

There are, however, certain forms of behavior that should 
be "against the rule" in every school. Profanity, indecency, 
the marking of walls and other injury to property, impudence 
to teachers and to passers-by, the throwing of snowballs in 
the school yard (except under conditions where this may be 
done without danger), playing marbles "for keeps," 1 and any 

1 In his Classroom Management (1907), the writer listed playing 
marbles "for keeps" among forbidden activities. Felix Arnold (School 



COERCIVE MEASURES 135 

other form of gambling, rough treatment of younger pupils 
in the school yard or on the way to and from school, cheat- 
ing in studies or in games, falsifying, and pilfering fall under 
this head. Of these, some are so distinctly provided for in 
the common and statute law, and others are so generally 
"taboo "among decent men and women, that specific "rules" 
against them need not be enunciated in school. In general, 
however, where an act is to be prohibited, the nature of the 
forbidden act should be carefully explained to the pupils 
and the reasons for its prohibition made clear. After this 
step has been taken, lapses from the requirement should 
be treated as serious offenses against the authority of the 
school. 

In the unruly school, many of the forms of miscon- 
duct just noted will be matters of common practice among 
the pupils, and the teacher or principal assuming charge 
of such a school will do well at the outset to concentrate 
upon one or two of the more serious offenses, and " settle" 
them first. While steps should be taken to change the 
attitude of the pupils toward the school and its work 
as indicated in the preceding chapters, it is essential 

and Class Management, New York, 1908, p. 351) approves of this "sport" 
on the ground that it is not primarily a game of chance, that it requires 
some skill on the part of the player, that it is " a training in eye and hand 
adjustments," and that it is "a means of developing social control." 
There are, of course, good reasons for caution in extending the concept 
of "gambling" to cover innocent sports. It is the writer's belief, how- 
ever, that marble playing for stakes is an activity that might well be 
discouraged by the school. Its alleged virtues are extremely question- 
able, and the writer is convinced that the type of interest that it engen- 
ders in the average boy is far from wholesome. With the development 
of supervised plays and games, there should be smaller and smaller 
space for these questionable activities. 



136 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

that the most serious disturbances should be met with 
firm, determined treatment at the very outset. To 
permit these forms of misbehavior to persist until one 
has " gained the confidence of one's pupils " is likely 
to be fatal ; and, beyond this, a clear and decisive triumph 
at the outset will do much to insure a ready acquiescence 
in the noncoercive measures. 

The Decisive " Coup " as a Means of Insuring Initial 
Order. — The suggestion just made merits further 
emphasis. With children as with adults, in school life 
as in politics, business, and war, a powerful psycho- 
logical effect is produced by quick, decisive movements 
that, through their success, immediately establish 
prestige and authority. The teacher or principal who 
is called upon to take charge of a difficult school may 
well look for opportunities to make one of the decisive 
coups as early as possible. Under these conditions, it is 
both necessary and legitimate deliberately to take steps 
that will insure a strategic advantage, — giving one an 
immediate mastery of the situation and making it pos- 
sible for one to put into operation the measures that will 
make for permanent reform. It not infrequently hap- 
pens, indeed, that a decisive coup at the outset will do 
away with the necessity for further coercive measures. 

A situation has come to the writer's attention which 
clearly illustrates this principle — although, as in the study 
of all concrete cases of discipline, it is well to be cautious in 
making generalizations. It was the first of April, and the 
upper-grade boys of a large elementary school had decided 



COERCIVE MEASURES 137 

among themselves that this day of ancient fame should be 
accorded holiday distinction. The trouble brewed during 
the morning recess without coming to the attention of the 
principal. When he returned to the schoolhouse as was his 
custom a half hour before the beginning of the afternoon 
session, he saw at once that something was wrong. There 
was an ominous silence among the pupils who had gathered 
on the school grounds, an ominous absence of certain familiar 
faces, and sundry curious glances portending an excited ex- 
pectation upon the part of the pupils that something would 
happen before long. A little inquiry revealed the difficulty. 
About thirty boys from the seventh and eighth grades had 
left in a body, and were reported to be trooping down toward 
the river. 

The time was all too short for prolonged meditation. In 
an emergency of this type, it is quick thought and immediate 
action that are "indicated." The contour of the river 
course came quickly to the principal's mind, and with it the 
opportunity of solving the situation. Telephoning to the 
attendance officer and to the police department, he secured 
two large wagons, and a detail of aides for the officer. The 
boys, he believed, would be found on the bank of the river 
at the elbow of a sharp bend, — it was a favorite point of 
rendezvous for fishing and swimming, and was only a short 
distance from town. The banks of the river rose precipi- 
tously on the farther side ; there was no bridge and the tem- 
perature was still too low to make swimming the river in one's 
clothing a thoroughly delightful prospect. Within ten minutes 
after the principal reached the school, wagons with the attend- 
ance officer and his aides had started for the river bend ; in ten 
minutes more, the truants were "rounded up" on the river 
bank, and, recognizing that they had been caught in a trap, 
they surrendered gracefully, were loaded into the wagons, 
and hurried back to the schoolhouse, which they reached 



138 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

only a few minutes after the afternoon session had commenced. 
They were greeted — not unpleasantly — by the principal 
and told to go at once to their rooms. But here a murmur 
of discontent arose. Some even pleaded for the traditional 
punishment; others sought to gain time (and consequently 
mitigate the keenness of their fiasco) by arguing the matter. 
But the principal was relentless. This was the denouement 
for which he had contrived the plot. They must "face the 
music" of the ridicule of their fellow pupils who had not 
yielded to the pressure of misguided leadership. The tri- 
umph was complete, and the situation was solved in a trice, 
amidst the laughter of the many and the discomfiture of the 
few. 

In the foregoing instance, it is not the specific steps 
that are important from our present point of view. It 
is rather the efficacy of the quick and decisive triumph 
which establishes at once the prestige or the generalship 
of the teacher or the principal; and this generalship 
the teacher or the principal who expects to deal effectively 
with large bodies of boys and girls must either develop, 
or, for lack of it, yield to the inevitable. No changing 
ideals of school government can change the fundamental 
principles of human nature. Methods of treatment 
may vary ; the rod may give way ; physical compulsion 
of the old-fashioned type may be discarded. But one 
factor persists. Boys — and men for that matter — 
still have an instinctive admiration for one who can 
quickly and decisively master a situation and change 
apparent defeat into an unquestioned triumph. And if 
this triumph comes with little apparent effort, and to 



COERCIVE MEASURES 139 

one who has not boasted or stormed or blustered about 
what he would do, it may become one of those fortunate 
events that live on as " traditions," giving one power 
and prestige for which he would otherwise strive in 
vain. 

An important condition of this quick, decisive treat- 
ment is the absence of further reference to the unpleasant 
events. The situation has been settled and the trouble 
should be speedily forgotten. The preservation of the 
" objective attitude," upon which so much stress was 
laid in a preceding chapter, is imperiled if the tense 
situation is permitted to continue. Once the unruly 
spirit has been subdued by a quick and decisive triumph, 
the time is opportune and the need imperative for insti- 
tuting measures which will look toward a permanent 
transformation of the pupils' attitude toward the work. 

The Principle of Persistence. — But if the initial at- 
tempt at a decisive and immediate solution of a dim- 
cult disciplinary situation is unsuccessful, one is not to 
conclude that other measures are futile. The invariable 
tendency of the young teacher is to give up too soon. 
Where the demand that the teacher is making is justified, 
it cannot safely be relaxed. Obedience must be secured, 
and there must be no halt in the proceedings until 
obedience is forthcoming. Here it is not only permis- 
sible but often necessary to drop everything else until 
one's end is gained. 

The following plan, worked out by a group of teachers 
in the Washington Irving High School for Girls, New 



140 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

York City, illustrates this principle so clearly that it is 
quoted in full : 

"i. This is a proposition discussed, formulated, and 
amended in the Teachers' Councils of the Washington 
Irving High School, and recommended to the Principal for 
trial. 

"2. Courtesy is so valuable as an asset for success in 
life that I, a teacher, ought to make it habitual in those 
under my charge. 

"3. Silent obedience is a form of courtesy required in 
business and other organizations, and it is my duty to train 
this habit. 

"4. New and substitute teachers should realize that they 
can have this if they will insist upon it from the first moment 
and, if failing to get it, will follow this procedure. 

"5. Select one girl from the group of apparent dis- 
turbers; never attempt to cure more than one case at a 
time. Give the scheme a chance to work. Don't talk, 
don't scold, don't raise your voice. Give her a distinct 
direction and add, 'Do this silently.' 

"6. If the girl disobeys, send another girl for a patrol 
who will be found on that floor or one floor below. The 
teacher and the patrol will then give the girl an opportunity 
to obey. 

"7. Patrol and teacher fill out a memorandum ... for 
record in the Bureau of Recommendations : ' Smith, Mary, 
2B4, discourteous and disobedient. Feb. 19, 1914. Annie 
White, Teacher ; Mary Brown, Patrol. Finally obeyed.' . . . 

" 8. If the girl fails, patrol will keep her till end of period, 
giving her an opportunity to add to report: 'I regret my 
disobedience. I intend to follow all directions of Washing- 
ton Irving teachers without retort or comment. Mary 
Smith/ 



COERCIVE MEASURES 141 

"9. Remember this is not intended for punishment but 
for habit formation. Don't talk. Don't encourage the girl 
to talk. Treat the case like a doctor, quietly. 

"10. (Directs that pupil be sent to deputy principal if 
she still refuses.) 

"'ii. The new or substitute teacher will repeat this over 
and over as long as the remaining class is not under control. 
It is not a device aiming at justice or selection of the worst 
offender or at punishment. It is a demonstration to girls 
that courtesy and obedience is the inviolable rule. 

"12. Other teachers should use this plan when they see 
the need of it. They know the futility of weakening this 
process by use except in serious cases." x 

The above plan, it will be seen, is adapted to a some- 
what peculiar situation. The Washington Irving High 
School is probably the largest school of its kind, enrolling 
6000 girls. It is one of the best-known high schools in 
the world to-day. It is especially remarkable for the 
effective esprit de corps that has been developed in the 
pupil body, and for the spirit of cooperation that has 
been developed between the teachers and the pupils. 
If the beginning teacher in a small and unknown school, 
having read the above suggestions, will remember that 
they have been worked out to meet the conditions that 
exist in one of the best schools in the world, he or she 
will perhaps be less likely to surrender, to take discipli- 
nary troubles personally, and least of all to fail in the 
patient, unremitting persistence that is often the sole 

1 Quoted from Writs of Assistance, the handbook of the teaching staff 
of the Washington Irving High School. 



142 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

condition of success. One may not be able to call 
patrols or send pupils to the principal or have a con- 
venient Bureau of Recommendations in which to lodge 
a complaint that may cost a recalcitrant a good job 
when he or she is through school ; but one may at least 
keep an objective attitude and utilize the means that 
are at hand with a firm faith that one is acting con- 
sistently with recognized tenets. 

Where Direct, Coercive Measures are " Indicated." 
— (a) The Indulged or Spoiled School. — The type of dis- 
orderly school that most distinctly needs the domina- 
tion of an " iron hand " is the one in which a weak ad- 
ministration has permitted liberty to grow into license, 
and has encouraged lawlessness through temporizing 
measures which have effectually placed the " control " 
of the school in the hands of the dominating personali- 
ties among the pupils. The situation which thus arises 
is an extremely difficult one with which to cope success- 
fully because the custom of obedience has often been 
completely broken down, and the natural instincts of 
docility and tractability have been entirely perverted. 
The following case 1 illustrates very clearly this type of 
disciplinary situation : 

Mr. H was appointed to teach the eighth and ninth 

grades in a town system enrolling about two hundred pupils. 
Three predecessors had occupied the position in quick suc- 
cession, each leaving after a few weeks' struggle with the dis- 
ciplinary difficulties. On the morning when Mr. H 

1 The accuracy of this case is vouched for by Professor L. D. Coffman. 



COERCIVE MEASURES 143 

took charge of the room, he found on the floor literally 
hundreds of match heads. He learned that the boys filled 
their pockets with these match heads, slit small holes in the 
pockets, and then permitted the matches to fall out as they 
walked about the room. As a result, there was a continual 
snapping of matches throughout the day. Another favorite 
bit of mischief was to fill the mouth with very small shot, 
remove the erasers from the ends of lead pencils, slip in a 
load of shot from the buccal magazine, and then, with a sly 
twist of the wrist, send the shot flying through the air. The 
snapping of the matches and the continual patter of shot 
constituted an interesting diversion, but the pupils were 
not satisfied with this. Dead animals — cats, rats, and mice 
particularly — were smuggled into the schoolroom and 
hidden in the desks of suspecting or unsuspecting pupils 
where they were discovered a little later with great surprise 
and many evidences of disgust, all of which redounded to the 
keen enjoyment of the smugglers. 

On this first day, Mr. H waited quietly until he defi- 
nitely located responsibility for mischief in eight different 
boys. Then he procured a whalebone whip, and adminis- 
tered to each of the offenders a severe chastisement. This 
brought the shot throwing and the match snapping to a 
sudden stop. But, while the room was reasonably quiet and 
orderly, the spirit still remained antagonistic. Matters went 
on in this unsatisfactory way until Friday. 

It had been the custom to devote each Friday afternoon 
to "rhetorical exercises," planned and conducted by the 

pupils themselves. On this first Friday, Mr. H followed 

the habit of his predecessors by withdrawing entirely from 
the conduct of the exercises, taking a seat as a spectator in 
the rear of the room. A pupil presided over the program, 
which was made up of recitations and declamations, conclud- 
ing with an original "paper" — a journalistic adventure 



144 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

devoted chiefly to crude jokes and personal "roasts." After 
the exercises had been completed, the teacher announced 
that on the following Friday the time devoted to these "rhe- 
toricals" would be limited to the period following the after- 
noon recess. There was some demurring on the part of the 
pupils, but the teacher stood firm, and the pupils finally 

consented. By the third Friday, Mr. H had come to 

the conclusion that the exercises as then conducted were 
thoroughly bad for the school, and especially subversive of 
discipline. He then announced that, thereafter, he would 
look over the "paper" before the meeting. It was presented 
to him, and he very liberally blue-penciled the coarser jokes. 
The pupil who had prepared the paper, an adolescent boy, 

John B , received it in silence but with a look on his 

face that betokened trouble. The preliminary part of Fri- 
day's program was carried through as usual. When the 
paper was announced, John arose with flushed face. "Mr. 
President," he said, " I refuse to read the paper. The teacher 
has marked out all of the principal items. I move that next 
Friday we begin these exercises at fifteen minutes after one, 
and that we prepare them and carry them out without any 
interference from the teacher." The announcement was 
greeted with strong approval by the pupils, but before action 
could be taken, the teacher, who had foreseen this climax, 
had taken his place upon the platform. In a calm voice he 
announced that the organization was adjourned permanently, 
and that there would be no more Friday afternoon exercises 
until he gave the requisite permission. He then turned to 
John and told him that he would be excused from school 
until he had changed his attitude toward those in authority. 
John, however, instead of going to his home went to the 
office of the superintendent of schools. This superintendent 
attempted to operate his schools by currying the favor of the 
troublesome pupils. He immediately took advantage of the 



COERCIVE MEASURES 145 

situation to establish himself in John's good graces. In a 
few minutes, John was back in his room with a message from 
the superintendent to the effect that he should be permitted 

to remain at his work. Mr. H , however, refused to 

admit him. Dismissing his class, he went at once to the 
superintendent and presented his resignation. Then going 
to the president of the school board, he explained the situa- 
tion and gave the news of his resignation. The board was 
hastily called together. The resignation was received, but 

not accepted. Mr. H was asked upon what terms he 

would remain, and replied that he would stay if he were 
removed from the jurisdiction of the superintendent. This 
was granted, and he was placed in complete charge of his 
room. John went before the board and pleaded for rein- 
statement, but the board stood firm and placed the whole 
matter in the hands of Mr. H . 

At the end of two weeks, John returned to the school 
which had in the meantime settled down into a wholesome 
spirit of work and cooperation with the teacher. He was 
told that he must prepare an apology to the teacher and to 
the school and read it before the school, and furthermore that 
he must read it in a manner that indicated clearly an appre- 
ciation of the character of his offense and the sincerity of his 
promises for future good conduct. He prepared the apology 
and promised to present it in the desired manner, but when 
the time came, he adopted an insolent and surly tone. In- 
stantly the teacher announced a further suspension. At 
this point, John broke down and read his apology in a spirit 
of humility and contrition. He was readmitted, but his spirit 
during the remainder of the term, while not rebellious, was 
still far from sympathetic. The school, however, with this 
one exception, was entirely transformed in spirit and 
attitude. 

It is always important to investigate the sequela of disci- 



146 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

plinary troubles, — a precaution that those reporting cases 
of this type frequently overlook. In this instance, however, 
the ultimate outcome of the treatment may be inferred from 
a supplementary statement accompanying the report. Mr. 

H was reappointed to his position for the second year, 

but declined in order to accept a principalship in a neighbor- 
ing city. He did not return to the scene of his early experi- 
ences until several years later, when he visited the town in the 
capacity of instructor at the county institute. The first 

person to greet him at this institute was John B , who had 

completed the high school course, and had become a teacher. 
He had married and was living with his family in the town. 

He insisted that Mr. H remain at his home during the 

week of the institute. On the first evening of the institute, 

a reception was given to Mr. H , and at this reception 

he met seven of the eight boys who had received summary 
punishment on the first day of school. They had done well 
in their school work, and they gave him to understand 
very clearly that his masterful handling of the school at a 
critical period was a turning point in their lives. The 
eighth boy who was punished on that memorable day had 
moved away from town; years afterward, however, when 

Mr. H was lecturing in the Far West, he met a man who 

introduced himself as one of the eight recalcitrants. From 
him, too, there came abundant testimony of the wholesome 
influence of the vigorous treatment. 

(b) The School in Rebellion. — The instance cited 
above would serve, in part, to illustrate a case of rebellion 
or mutiny. There are, however, types of rebellion which 
are more clearly defined, and which are due to causes 
other than indulgence or weakness in the school ad- 
ministration. In these cases, coercive measures are al- 



COERCIVE MEASURES 147 

most always " indicated " at the outset — always with 
the proviso that they be supplemented immediately by 
measures of the type described in the preceding chapters. 
Rebellion means the end of school government, and if 
the government is to persist, the rebellion must be sub- 
dued. In general, there is in school small place for 
" treating " with recalcitrants or for compromise of any 
sort. This practice is, in effect, an attempt to purchase 
order, and against this as a school policy we have already 
protested. Real and justifiable grievances, here as else- 
where, should certainly be redressed; accusations of 
injustice must be investigated ; and appropriate meas- 
ures must be taken to insure better conditions if existing 
conditions are found to be unjust and inequitable. But 
neither redress nor investigation should be made while 
rebellion is in progress. Order must come first, and the 
rights of all, including the teacher, must be guaranteed. 
One of the most embarrassing and difficult situations 
in school administration is created when a classroom 
teacher, through a series of tactless blunders or careless 
and perhaps cruel practices, has incited rebellion in the 
pupil body. The superintendent recognizes clearly that 
the condition is due in large part to the inefficiency of 
the teacher, and yet he must support the teacher until 
order is restored. How to do this in such a way that 
the administration of the school will not appear in the 
pupil's eyes to be a party to the injustice is a difficult 
task. But upon one point there is general agreement: 
the teacher must be supported until order is restored. To 



148 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

permit the pupils to believe that, by making trouble, 
they can rule or ruin is to sow the seeds of permanent 
and ever increasing difficulty ; and to dismiss a teacher 
while rebellion is in progress is to encourage this belief. 
(c) Willful Disobedience. — Individual as well as 
group rebellion should commonly be treated by coercive 
measures, although, as we suggested in a preceding chap- 
ter, it is sometimes possible in a school where the fashion 
of order has been well established to let the coercion be 
of the indirect type. Before this fashion has had an 
opportunity to become established, however, there are 
occasions when malicious and intentional misbehavior 
will need drastic treatment. It is often difficult to deter- 
mine whether the mischief is intentional or accidental ; 
some pupils, indeed, have mastered in a high degree the 
art of feigning injured innocence, and these pupils are 
likely to cause the beginning teacher serious trouble. 
In general, then, it is well at the outset to note and correct 
all lapses from established rules and restrictions. 1 If the 
lapse is unintentional, a stimulus to care and watchful- 
ness on the part of the pupil is essential ; if the lapse is 
intentional, the authority of the teacher is under test 

1 " Let the teacher realize that the safety of life here in an emergency 
depends upon quick obedience, that 90 per cent of fires and accidents 
are due to disobedience, that every organization, domestic, social, com- 
mercial, educational, for some one or more of which we are preparing 
our students, requires obedience to law and its personal representatives. 
Then let her get the habit fixed in all persons for whom she is respon- 
sible. Every violation weakens the habit and makes harder work for 
you and for every other teacher." — Washington Irving High School, 
Writs of Assistance, 450. 



COERCIVE MEASURES 1 49 

and must be maintained. The experienced teacher 
comes to know the symptoms of deceit, and the pupils 
know that a " bluff " will not " work," consequently 
they do not indulge in the game; but the beginning 
teacher is a constant temptation to the wit and cleverness 
of his or her young charges, and needs — always with 
the " objective attitude " — to be constantly " on 
guard." 

An extreme case, cited by White, 1 may be profitably in- 
stanced in this connection : 

"A lady who had had unusual success in country schools 
was once employed to take charge of a Cleveland school 
which two successive teachers had failed to control. Nothing 
was said to her respecting the condition of the school, and she 
took charge of it, anticipating a pleasant experience in teach- 
ing in the city. At noon she returned to her boarding place 
in tears, and said to her brother that she could do nothing 
with the boys and had made up her mind to resign and go 
back into the country. ' I have done my best to interest the 
boys,' she added, 'and they have simply run over me. Boys 
have gone head first out of the windows and back again, 
whistling at me.' — 'Do not think of resigning . . .,' said the 
brother, 'but go back and put your school in order, and give 
the boys a lesson in prompt obedience. Ask them to rise 
quietly at the beck of your hand. If a boy fails to respond, 
attend to hint.' — 'Shall I whip ?' asked the troubled teacher. — 
'Whip? Yes, if necessary,' said the brother, 'and I will 
furnish the whips. Your school is in rebellion.' She sighed 
and took the whips furnished, and returned to her school 
'to try the experiment.' She came back at the close of school 
with a look of victory in her face. 'Well, Mary,' said the 

1 School Management, p. 208. 



150 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

brother, 'what kind of a school did you have this afternoon ? ' 

— 'I had an excellent school,' she replied, ' the last hour. . . .' 

— ' But what of the first hour ? ' said the brother. ' I do not 
like to say.' — ' Did you whip ? ' — ' Whip ! I whipped a half 
dozen boys the first twenty minutes, but they "toed the 
mark" after that. I am going to have a beautiful school.' 

" That lady taught in the schools of Cleveland until she 
went to her reward, and she never whipped another pupil. 
It is a good many years since the writer gave the above ad- 
vice, but he would give it to-day under like circumstances. " 

(d) Malicious Mischief. — Under this head will come 
especially " vicious " types of misconduct, such as mal- 
treatment of other (and especially younger) pupils ; in- 
solence and insult to teachers and other adults; blas- 
phemy and gambling ; and " smartaleck-ism " at fire 
drills and on other occasions when absolute control is 
essential to the welfare of the group. Needless to say, 
the school must treat offenses of this type in such a way 
as to stamp an effective and emphatic disapproval upon 
them in the eyes of all of the pupils. Here it is not the 
individual himself that is primarily concerned ; it is the 
group ; and measures that may be effective in reforming 
the individual (such as moral suasion) must be supple- 
mented by measures that will serve to deter others from 
similar offenses. 

The grave danger that is involved in permitting an atti- 
tude of "go-as-you-please" obedience upon the part of 
pupils is only too clearly seen in the report of a school fire 
in which hundreds of little children lost their lives. The press 
reports stated (with how much truth we are unable to deter- 



COERCIVE MEASURES 151 

mine) that when the fire alarm was sounded, several of the 
larger boys jokingly shouted "False alarm!" believing it to 
be "only a fire drill." This particular incident would prob- 
ably be accorded small weight by a coroner's jury, but to 
one who is accustomed to judge the "spirit" and morale of 
school discipline from just such seemingly trivial expressions, 
the statement is full of significance. If the report is true, it 
simply means that the school was poorly disciplined, and that 
the ensuing panic was due, not to "doors that opened in- 
ward" (for the doors happened to open outward), but to a 
lack of control over the pupils. The administration of a 
school that permits this attitude to develop is essentially 
weak and inefficient. Where forty or four hundred children 
of all ages are gathered together, absolute, instantaneous, 
and whole-hearted obedience to necessary commands is 
absolutely essential. These commands are not to come, per- 
haps, every day ; but when they do come, there must be no 
question of the response. Anything in the way of neglect 
upon the part of the teacher that will make control under 
panic conditions impossible should be condemned in the 
strongest terms, — even at the expense of a pet theory of 
"individual development" with which arbitrary obedience 
may be inconsistent. And the only way in which the attitude 
of obedience can be definitely insured is to treat lapses from 
obedience at all times as serious offenses. 

Another difficulty arises in connection with the mal- 
treatment or " hazing " of individual pupils who are either 
too small or too weak or too complaisant to defend 
themselves. This type of conduct is perfectly natural 
and instinctive, and in its free and unrestricted operation 
it probably fulfills at times an important educative func- 
tion by acquainting the timid and the weak with the 



152 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

necessity of standing up for their rights. In practice, 
however, its virtues are seldom realized; the weak be- 
come weaker, the cowards more cowardly, and the strong 
more arrogant and overbearing, — precisely as " nature " 
seems to have intended. In any case, whether or not 
the practices have the sanction of natural law, they are 
thoroughly inconsistent with the " live and let live " 
ideal of civilized society — which overrides and counter- 
vails natural law at more than one point. In the school, 
the weak must be protected, and even the cowards can- 
not be forced to fight! 

Petty theft is so common in some schools that teachers 
and principals are almost driven to lose their faith in 
human nature. Almost every high school principal who 
has had under his control a large and cosmopolitan 
group of adolescents can relate instances of pilfering 
that are complicated by innumerable factors, — poverty, 
emulation, jealousy, simple greed, avarice, and the like, 
— revealing themselves in an apparently uncontrollable 
form. Pencils, books, hats, jackets, ribbons, pocket 
books and their contents disappear as if by magic or 
miracle. Locker systems are a necessary part of the 
equipment of the modern American high school. And 
the pathetic element enters when the culprits are detected 
and their motives investigated. It seems hard to 
punish boys and girls when the temptation to the offense 
is often so great, and when the home conditions stimu- 
late anything but a sense of moral responsibility. These 
are delicate situations and demand delicate treatment, 



COERCIVE MEASURES 1 53 

for it is usually true that the severest punishment is to 
publish the offense and the offender before the whole 
school, and to subject the culprit to the most thoroughly 
degrading type of experience, — the condemning scorn 
of his fellows. While this treatment may be demanded 
at times, it is the writer's belief that something less 
drastic will usually be the better policy. Here it is the 
individual himself who is primarily the object of all 
punitive measures. It is his reform that is chiefly 
sought. The situation is not quite the same as it is 
when the rules of the school are openly evaded or when 
offenses that are less generally subject to social con- 
demnation are committed, for in the latter case an 
" example " must of necessity be made in order to deter 
others, and to prevent the offense from becoming the 
fashion, while in the former case, the wholesome reaction 
of the great majority of pupils can be safely trusted. 

The mutilation of school buildings and furniture is a 
type of misconduct similar to willful disobedience ; that 
is, it is likely to spread among the group and to be 
looked upon by the pupils as " legitimate " mischief — 
if we may use this term to express the sharp distinction 
that a boy or girl often makes between something that 
is merely forbidden and something that is " downright 
wrong," like stealing. Coercive treatment in the form 
of swift and certain punishment is clearly indicated 
here — supplemented at once and gradually supplanted 
by the development among the pupils of a feeling of 
pride in the appearance of the school and the recognition 



154 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

by them of the wrong involved in injuring the property 
of the people. There is abundant opportunity here for 
some concrete and effective lessons in civic ethics, — 
lessons that can be taught successfully in most cases 
by an informal discussion in which the pupils are grad- 
ually led to see that vandalism is only another form 
of theft. 1 

Insolence and insult, especially to those who by virtue 
of age or sex have been made the especial objects of 
chivalric ideals, is another form of misconduct that 
demands drastic treatment. Here it is sometimes suffi- 
cient to let the condemnation of the pupil group form 
the punishment, but, generally speaking, effective correc- 
tion from those in authority is also demanded, and 
demanded by the pupils themselves. An inalienable 
right of childhood is the right to be corrected for unsocial 
conduct, and here the misconduct strikes against two 
of the most important and precious ideals that civilized 

1 The casuistic distinction which boys (and sometimes men) make 
between the property of individuals and the property of corporations 
or of the state, lies at the basis of much of the vandalism and of the theft 
of public property in schools. The writer recalls in this connection his 
own participation as a youth in a system of student self-government in 
a state institution. The "penal code" of the student body was written 
out in the form of laws, each law having attached to it the kind and 
amount of the penalty that its violation would involve. For theft from 
fellow students, the penalty was expulsion ; for theft from the state, the 
penalty was five black marks — fifteen of these being equivalent to 
expulsion. Thus in a direct and unequivocal way, an offense against 
private property was adjudged to be three times as culpable as an offense 
against public property! Excellent suggestions as to the method of 
setting pupils right on questions of this sort will be found in an article 
by F. C. Sharp and H. Neumann, School Review, April, 191 2. 



COERCIVE MEASURES 1 55 

society has slowly and gradually evolved, — the ideals 
of respect for age and respect for womanhood. 

The writer once listened to an address on discipline given 
by a superintendent of schools to a group of teachers in an 
institute. The theme running through the address was an 
appeal to the teachers not to take too seriously the misbe- 
havior of their pupils, — dangerous advice unless carefully 
given. The terrible results following from correcting boys 
for offenses against order and decency were vividly painted, 
and when the results could not be adequately portrayed, the 
speaker took refuge in ridicule and sarcasm. Among the 
"cases" cited, the following is typical of the philosophy of 
discipline held by this guardian of the coming generation. 
One of his teachers came to him greatly agitated, and de- 
manded that he punish at once two boys who had insulted 
her. They were not her own pupils. They were not even 
members of the school in which she served, but of a neigh- 
boring school. It seems that these two lads, however, knew 
this teacher by name and saw her frequently. She chanced 
to have auburn hair, and the boys chanced to have, on this 
particular occasion, a supply of red crayon. The association 
was inevitable and the impulse spontaneous. Going to the 
schoolhouse where this teacher served, they wrote her name 
(with a certain nickname appended) in red crayon on the 
steps, and then passing down the side walk through several 
blocks repeated the operation at short intervals on the con- 
crete sidewalk, ending with a particularly ambitious flourish 
in front of her boarding place. When the teacher left the 
school, she was greeted with this little personal tribute at 
intervals all the way home. What mortification she suffered 
may be guessed. She discovered who had subjected her to 
this humiliating experience, and reported the culprits at once 
to the superintendent, asking that he punish the two boys. 



156 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

The superintendent laughed at her (by his own statement, 
in which he even expressed great pride that he had not let 
his anger be aroused by this occurrence !). He told her that 
"boys would be boys," that they had found the crayon and 
had made the association very cleverly with her hair, and that 
the best thing for her to do was to take it as a good joke. 

Personally, while we have pinned our faith to the virtues 
of the "objective attitude," we recognize that there are occa- 
sions when, for the benefit of the offender if for no other rea- 
son, offenses must be taken personally. This is a case in 
point. Spencer's doctrine of natural punishments has a 
distinct place here — and it is not necessary to add what the 
"natural" punishment for an offense of this kind is. In- 
stinct may well be trusted in some situations. 

There are some schools in our city systems from which 
or to which the teachers cannot pass through neighbor- 
ing streets without being hooted at and " called names," 
and often for no reason except that their names are known 
to all of the children of the locality. This is not con- 
fined to the " slum " districts ; in some cities, the practice 
is even more common in the residence districts inhabited 
by wealthy families. We cannot agree that teachers 
should be expected to " stand " this kind of treatment 
uncomplainingly. It is, in effect, an affront to the serv- 
ice and should be treated as such. It makes teachers 
self-conscious, discourages them with their profession 
and discourages others from entering its ranks. It is as 
distinctly against public policy as a similar treatment of 
the police would be if this were tolerated. And the best 
way to discourage the practice, we believe, if complaint 



COERCIVE MEASURES 1 57 

to parents is unavailing, is to appeal to the police to abate 
it as a nuisance. A teacher's feelings and a teacher's 
self-respect should be as immune from violation as is 
his or her private property. Simply because the busi- 
ness of teaching makes one's name known to the undis- 
ciplined children of the community, one should not be 
asked to accept treatment against which other citizens 
may claim adequate protection. Many teachers, how- 
ever, suffer in silence, preferring to accept the humilia- 
tion rather than have it appear that their school work 
and the requirements that they have laid upon their 
pupils have made them " unpopular " and thus brought 
derision and insult by the way of revenge. This is an 
attitude which, we fear, is all too common in some 
communities, and an attitude that is distinctly encouraged 
by such perverted and socially dangerous ideas and ideals 
of discipline as those of the superintendent who treated 
insults offered to his teachers as "good jokes." ) 

Interference from Without, a Handicap to Effective 
Discipline. — The troubles that arise from the attempt 
of individual citizens, acting in a private capacity, to 
dictate the policies of educational administration is one 
of the heavy prices that must be paid in America for the 
advantages that attach to the local control of schools ; 
and in no phase of administration are these troubles 
more acute than in connection with disciplinary problems. 
The teacher or the principal must see to it that justice 
is done to all and especially that the rights of the ma- 
jority are not invaded or invalidated by the whims and 



158 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

caprice of the influential few, but this often means that 
disagreeable situations must be faced and rather serious 
risks of engendering personal enmity must be incurred. It 
is in crises of this type that the true mettle of the teacher 
or the superintendent is most clearly revealed. It is, 
indeed, difficult to strike the right balance, — to prevent 
firmness from becoming tactlessness and to prevent tact 
and diplomacy from becoming a ready acceptance of 
and acquiescence in " bulldozing " threats. As an 
illustration of the general type of action that is thoroughly 
consistent with professional ethics, the following in- 
stance may be cited : 1 

"... John N. Davis is one of the men in the teaching 
profession of whom we should all be proud. And this is the 
reason : 

"Two years ago, John stepped over the border into Menom- 
inee, Michigan, to teach school. Things went along nicely 
there until this fall, when the favored son of the president of 
John's school board defied the rules of the school by smoking 
cigarettes on the playground. Mr. Davis took the matter 
up with the boy's father, but the latter . . . stoutly con- 
tended that the boy should be readmitted to school, from 
which he had been suspended, and practically without any 
conditions. Unfortunately for this president of the school 
board, JohnN. Davis stood 'pat,' and politely informed him 
that, should the boy return, there would not be room enough 
for both of them in the same school building. The board 
met, and before their resolution was cold they had the un- 
qualified resignation of Schoolmaster Davis, followed im- 
mediately by the entire school faculty. 

1 From the Wisconsin Journal of Education, December, 1913, p. 278. 



COERCIVE MEASURES 1 59 

"Then there was something doing ! The people of the 
city awoke to the realization of the true condition of affairs 
and compelled the school board to meet and rescind their 
action, which they did, and a resolution was passed . . . 
giving Mr. Davis full power and unqualified authority to dis- 
cipline the school according to his own ideas." 

It is when one is face to face with difficulties of this 
sort that one is tempted to lose faith in the virtues of 
democracy and especially of local self-government. 
But the experience just recounted points to the funda- 
mental fact upon which our faith in democracy and in 
self-government must always rest : when the " people " 
really understand the situation, their collective judgment 
can be safely trusted, especially if a moral issue is in- 
volved. " Be sure you are right and then go ahead " 
may be platitudinous advice, but it is a golden help in 
time of trouble. If it is necessary to go before the people, 
one need not fear if one's issue is a moral issue ; to which, 
perhaps, one might add a precept of political strategy: 
Where publicity is inevitable, be sure to get to the public 
first. 

The Principle of Individual Treatment. — While it 
is true that some offenses against school discipline are 
collective in their nature, and demand collective treat- 
ment and collective reparation, 1 these are less frequent 
in their occurrence than the offenses that are purely 
individual, and subject to individual treatment. Indeed, 
the young teachef will do well to avoid attributing 

1 For example, the case cited on pp. 99 ff . 



l6o SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

disorder to the class as a whole, — and it will take some 
little self-control not to do this. The first tendency will 
undoubtedly be to attempt to check disorder by an 
impersonal " scolding " of the class as a whole. The 
practice is commonly weak and ineffective, only serving 
to intensify the unfortunate conditions. 

One of the clearest precepts of class management, 
then, is to locate responsibility in the individual offender, 
and deal with him as an individual. Other offenders 
may continue their disturbance while the teacher is en- 
gaged with the one who has been detected. These can 
be taken in their turn. If, however, the class is con- 
demned indiscriminately, the very fact of group coopera- 
tion in mischief is, as it were, officially recognized, and 
disastrous consequences in the way of rebellion or per- 
manent disaffection may result. 

The supervision of study and assembly rooms not in- 
frequently involves a succession of irritating disciplinary 
conditions. The room, perhaps, has been placed in 
charge of a beginner who has yet to learn the art of con- 
trol. The pupils naturally seize the opportunity for 
diversion. A low humming is heard throughout the room, 
not the lauded " hum of industry " but the hum of mis- 
chief. The pupils seem intent upon their work, and are 
appropriately shocked and surprised, when the super- 
visor announces that the humming must stop. Or a 
stealthy shuffling of feet disturbs first this quarter of the 
room and then another quarter, followed by the same 
expressions of injured innocence when its abatement 



COERCIVE MEASURES l6l 

is demanded. To pound on the desk, lose one's temper 
and give vent to noisy disapproval are forms of treatment 
to be carefully avoided here. Find one offender, then 
another, and another if necessary, and deal with each as 
an individual. Sometimes one will have to wait for 
the opportunity, but waiting is vastly better than a pre- 
mature explosion. Sneaking mischief of this sort justi- 
fies rather severe treatment, for its very existence in a 
form that is concealed and difficult to uncover imposes 
a task upon the teacher that may use up far more time 
and energy than a much more serious offense, and it is 
better to " make an example " of one or two offenders 
through suspension than to risk a continuance of the dis- 
turbance. 

The general principle of individual treatment should 
not, however, preclude warnings or suggestions given 
to the group as a whole. Even under the conditions just 
described, a good-natured appeal to have the disturbance 
stopped may be all that is necessary, and this expedient 
should certainly be tried. What is to be avoided is an 
attempt to punish the group collectively or indiscrimi- 
nately, either by scolding, by threatening, or by retain- 
ing all of the pupils after hours. 

As a rule, also, it is well not to rebuke an individual 
pupil by name in the presence of the class. He should 
be spoken to privately, the teacher going to his seat or 
calling him to the desk or detaining him for a moment 
after the others have left. To rebuke publicly may 
make a hero of the offender and consequently render 

M 



1 62 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

much more difficult a quelling of the disorder. There 
are exceptions to this general rule, but it is, we believe, 
a safe rule for the beginner to follow. To quote again 
from Professor Phelps : 

"When there is a little plague spot of irruption in the 
classroom, when there is individual disorder or inattention, 
it is better to speak to the class as a whole, rather than to 
single out one person by name. And if there is one boy or 
girl who persists in repeated offenses of this nature, then it 
is well to keep the culprit a moment after class, and, after 
every one has gone out, to talk very frankly, very earnestly, 
but never angrily or sarcastically with him. Sometimes this 
method will result not only in complete reformation, but in 
transforming the individual from a leader of disturbance into 
an influence for good order. Very few boys and girls can 
resist a quiet, personal talk." l 

Questions and Exercises 

i. What is the relation of coercive methods of school 
discipline to the methods discussed in preceding chapters? 
Why are the latter methods to be preferred where it is pos- 
sible to apply them effectively? 

2. "Really effective discipline is rarely expressed; it is 
rather felt by every one under its control." This statement 
is made by Professor O'Shea in his Everyday Problems in 
Teaching. What steps would you take to insure this end? 
Why is a constant "show" of power and authority incon- 
sistent with good discipline? 

3. What steps would you take in reducing a spoiled or 
indulged school to a regimen of law and order ? 

1 W. L. Phelps, Teaching in School and College, p. 27. 



COERCIVE MEASURES 1 63 

4. List the more important characteristic symptoms of a 
school in rebellion. Discuss the advisability of treating with 
the leaders as a basis for suppressing or abating a rebellion 
in school. 

5. How is willful disobedience to be distinguished from 
thoughtless or unintentional misconduct? How would you 
deal with a pupil who pleaded in extenuation of his mis- 
behavior that he "did not intend to do anything wrong"? 

6. "The greatness of a fault depends partly on the nature 
of the person against whom it is committed, partly upon 
the extent of its consequences ; its pardonableness, humanly 
speaking, on the degree of temptation to it." (Ruskin: 
Seven Lamps of Architecture.) How would you apply this 
principle to the faults of school children? Is it possible to 
recognize and appreciate the temptation to which the in- 
dividual has been subjected and still recognize the necessity 
for correction ? 



CHAPTER X 

Coercion through Rewards and Penalties 

It is through the agency of rewards and penalties that 
coercive measures are commonly made effective both in 
civil government and in school government. 

The Psychology of Rewards and Penalties. — The 
principle underlying the employment of rewards and 
penalties is very simple. If a certain kind of behavior 
invariably brings an unpleasant consequence, this type 
of behavior will tend to be repressed or inhibited; if, 
on the other hand, a certain type of behavior invariably 
brings pleasant consequences, it will be confirmed and 
repeated. " Learning " is always a process of modify- 
ing behavior or conduct, and the principle just formu- 
lated lies at the basis of the learning process. " Teach- 
ing " is a process of inducing others to " learn," and the 
most primitive type of teaching is to arrange the experi- 
ences of the learner in such a way that desirable modes 
of conduct will result pleasantly, and undesirable modes 
of conduct unpleasantly. 

The readiness or celerity with which behavior is 
modified under the stimulus of pleasant or unpleasant con- 
sequences is recognized among psychologists as a most 
important index of intelligence. Among the lower 

164 



REWARDS AND PENALTIES 1 65 

forms of life, behavior is likely to be modified very slowly ; 
in the higher forms of life, a single unpleasant experience 
may permanently change conduct with reference to the 
situation in question. Upon the higher levels of intelli- 
gence, too, the immediate consequences of different types 
of conduct become much less significant than the remote 
consequences. With the ability to anticipate the future 
and to feel in imagination what the remote consequences 
will be, types of behavior that are immediately unpleasant 
may be undergone willingly for the sake of what the future 
will bring. In the very highest types of conduct, the in- 
dividual is even able to read his own pleasure aDd his 
own pain very largely out of the problem, and to base 
his acts upon the future good of others. In general, 
however, this level of conduct is relatively uncommon, 
although it is, naturally enough, an ideal to which society 
gives the most powerful sanctions because it involves 
a conscious and willing sacrifice of the individual for the 
social good. 

The Relative Efficiency of Pleasant and Unpleasant 
Consequences. — The school, however, deals primarily 
with the immature mind of childhood and here the im- 
mediate consequences rather than the remote conse- 
quences are the determining factors in conduct. The 
question at once arises, Are pleasant consequences 
(rewards) more effective in modifying conduct than 
unpleasant consequences (penalties)? From the point 
of view of psychological theory, there can be little doubt 
of the answer to this question. The discipline of the 



1 66 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

" unpleasant " or the " disagreeable " undoubtedly 
teaches its lessons with greater certainty and celerity 
than the discipline of the " pleasant " or the " agree- 
able." This has been fairly well demonstrated in the 
experimental study of animal psychology. It has been 
found, for example, that when animals are being taught 
certain tricks, the infliction of a slight pain for every 
failure to make the right movement is more effective 
than depending simply on giving a reward (in the form, 
perhaps, of a lump of sugar) for every success. Obvi- 
ously, the most effective procedure employs both the 
pleasant and the unpleasant consequence. The reason 
for the greater efficiency of the unpleasant, if only one 
is used, however, reveals some rather important lessons 
for education. Yerkes says that the effectiveness of the 
pleasant depends upon the happy cooperation of a 
number of conditions that are not always under the con- 
trol of the trainer. If, for example, one depends upon 
the attractiveness of a food reward in training an animal, 
the efficiency of the reward will depend upon whether 
the animal is hungry. The unpleasant consequence, how- 
ever, operates with much greater certainty and is amen- 
able to a much finer measure of control by the trainer. 1 
That a similar condition operates in human education 
is obvious. The virtues of a reward are realized only 
when the individual very greatly desires the reward, 
and this desire varies with different individuals and at 
different times with the same individual. Penalties, 

1 Cf. R. M. Yerkes, The Dancing Mouse, New York, 1907, pp. 98 f. 



REWARDS AND PENALTIES 1 67 

however, operate with much greater constancy and can 
be applied with approximately the same unpleasant 
results to all individuals, — although that penalties 
vary somewhat in their potency from individual to in- 
dividual and from time to time is clear enough. 

The Discipline of the Disagreeable in Education. — 
In solving the problem of school discipline, direct re- 
liance must be placed upon penalties and indirect re- 
liance upon rewards. This somewhat cryptic sentence 
really involves an educational principle of large impor- 
tance. // is always bad policy in school discipline to bribe 
children to be good through offering direct and unequivocal 
rewards for good behavior. The " rewards of virtue " 
must come in school, as in life, through indirect channels. 
Society places only one reward on mere " goodness " 
(that is, on negative morality or mere avoidance of evil) 
and that reward is freedom from penalties for being bad ! 
Positive virtue — direct and self-sacrificing effort for 
the social welfare — may bring large rewards in adult 
life and should certainly bring a reward of some sort in 
school. But the responsibility for merely avoiding evil 
should rest upon the individual, and the only effective 
method of insuring this end is to penalize evil. 

For individual and group infractions of the necessary 
rules and restrictions of the school, therefore, penalties 
of one sort or another must be exacted. Sometimes the 
penalty will itself attach to the misdeed, — as when, for 
example, the silent disapproval of the group follows the 
misdeed. But in most instances (and particularly in 



1 68 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

the " unruly " school which we have been discussing) 
the penalty must be imposed by the teacher. 

Conditions that make Penalties Effective. — A penalty 
must usually fulfill two functions : (i) it must associate 
itself in the pupil's mind with the undesirable act, and so 
serve to deter him from a repetition of the act; and 
(2) it must deter others from similar misdeeds. The 
first of these conditions requires that the penalty have 
an effective " sting," and that it be readily and un- 
equivocally associable with the misdeed and so far as 
possible with nothing else. That is, the association of 
the " sting " of the penalty with acts that are desirable 
or with school work in general is obviously to be avoided. 
The conditions under which a penalty will act as a 
deterrent to others are much more complicated, — so 
complicated, indeed, that it is impossible to lay down 
any general principles that will govern each particular 
case. A great deal, if not everything, depends upon the 
social prejudice that has grown up against the penalty. 

But this very "social prejudice" which makes certain 
penalties very effective as deterrents, operates as well to 
preclude their employment. In the following chapter 
we shall trace the evolution of punishment, and point 
out how and why certain penalties have come to be so 
repugnant as to be completely abandoned by civilized 
society. 

Questions and Exercises 

1. In your own experience, has the fear of painful con- 
sequences or the anticipation of pleasurable consequences 



REWARDS AND PENALTIES 1 69 

been the more effective incentive for leaving undone the 
things that you wished to do and for doing the tasks that 
you did not wish to do ? Have you noticed in any case an 
alternation between the fear of the unpleasant and the hope 
of the pleasant? (Take, for example, working on an un- 
attractive lesson : is the fear of failing in class or the hope 
of making a good record or a high "mark" the more effective 
stimulus ?) Cite other cases. 

2. Under what conditions will the hope of reward prove 
an effective incentive? Do you agree with the statement 
that unpleasant consequences operate with more certainty 
than pleasant consequences? Can you think of additional 
reasons why the unpleasant may be the more effective? 

3. What is the danger of inflicting the same kind of 
punishment for misconduct on the one hand and for the 
failure of the pupil to "get his lessons" on the other hand? 
(For example, in the old-time school, pupils were whipped 
indiscriminately for mischief and for unwillingness or in- 
ability to learn quickly and effectively.) 

4. If a punishment to be fully effective must associate 
itself in the pupil's mind with the misdeed, how would you 
justify delayed punishments? (Delay that is not too pro- 
tracted may certainly be justified under some conditions.) 

5. Do you agree that regular school tasks should not be 
employed as penalties for misconduct? If you agree with 
this as a general principle, can you justify exceptions, and if 
so under what conditions ? 



CHAPTER XI 

Corporal Punishment and the Reaction 
against it 

In the cases cited in the preceding chapter occasional 
reference was made to the infliction of corporal punish- 
ment. Where direct, coercive measures are adopted, 
the employment of physical coercion is naturally first 
suggested. As a matter of fact, however, the use of 
actual physical force in American schools is becoming less 
and less frequent, and the time is perhaps not far in the 
future when it will be very rare. At the same time, it is 
hardly likely that a means of discipline which has been 
so well-nigh universal in the past, and which has had the 
sanction of human experience from time immemorial, will 
ever entirely lose its place. Like so many of the other 
forces that have operated in the evolution of the social 
structure, physical coercion will come to " function " 
more and more in a" symbolic " rather than in an " actual " 
way. That is to say, the possibility of physical coercion 
or of physical punishment will continue to be a force in 
life. Just as the state can compel the individual to live 
in accordance with certain restrictions, so the school 
can compel the pupil ; but just as the state when it has 
attained a stable and permanent form may safely depend 

170 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 171 

upon the possibility of coercion to work the desired 
result, so the school, when the proper degree of stability 
in its organization has been obtained, may rest fairly 
secure in the same vicarious force. It is in new com- 
munities where law and order are struggling with anti- 
social forces that the law must be administered with 
severity and rigor. And in the school that is decadent or 
rebellious, or in the school that is not taken seriously by 
the community or by the pupils, a similar necessity 
exists. 

Why Actual Physical Coercion is Disappearing. — The 
measure in which the possibility of coercion does away 
with the fact of coercion is clearly revealed in some of the 
larger city school systems in which corporal punishment 
is practically unknown. Here the very magnitude of 
the school organization, its visible expression in massive 
buildings and costly equipment, the vast army of pupils 
and teachers that its buildings house, all combine to 
give an impression of power and strength which even a 
child can feel. That it is altogether wholesome for one 
to be conscious of one's own impotence in the face of 
overwhelming odds may perhaps be denied by the radical 
individualist ; but there can be no doubt that effective 
government depends largely upon this factor ; and if the 
" overwhelming odds " represent clearly and unequivo- 
cally the collective will of the people, there can be little 
doubt that the feeling of impotence is salutary and whole- 
some.^ Without it the social fabric would quickly 
crumble. 



172 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

A second reason why the necessity for actual physical 
coercion is disappearing is to be found in the fact that 
confirmed recalcitrants — the troublesome incorrigibles 
— are being turned over to special agencies for segrega- 
tion, treatment, and, if possible, reform. This tends 
to relieve the school of those abnormal individuals who 
in the interests of the majority, would otherwise be the 
constant objects of coercive measures. It is, however, 
only in the larger cities that the special schools and in- 
stitutions for incorrigibles have been established; and 
while state institutions will receive very unruly boys and 
girls from smaller communities upon commitment through 
a process of law, they cannot, of course, serve so effectively 
to eliminate the necessity for coercive measures in the 
smaller schools. Generally speaking, it is in the schools 
of the smaller communities that the disciplinary problem 
still looms large, — not only because these communities 
cannot provide special schools for incorrigibles, but also 
because the younger and more inexperienced teachers 
are more numerous here, and because supervision is 
less effective. 

A third factor influencing the decline of physical 
coercion in American schools has been the gradual but 
now almost complete feminization of the teaching force 
in the elementary schools. 

The fundamental reason for the decline of physical 
correction and compulsion in education, however, must 
be sought in the changing attitude of the public toward 
this particular form of discipline. This change has been 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 1 73 

going on gradually for a long period, accompanying 
somewhat tardily the general reaction against corporal 
punishment in civil and military government. 

The Reaction against Corporal Punishment. — Flog- 
ging was, until within a hundred years, a universal 
method of correction, not only in dealing with children, 
but also in dealing with adult offenders. Indeed, the 
supposed virtues of the rod were not only held in high 
repute in connection with moral discipline, but were 
sometimes extolled as effective agencies in the treat- 
ment of disease. 1 Castigation and flagellation have also 
played an important part in religious discipline. Ritual- 
istic flagellation existed among the Jews; with the 
Christians, the rod was early used as a means of cor- 
rection; and, with the development of monasticism, 
voluntary flogging came to be a favorite means of penance. 
The sect of the Flagellants originated in Italy in the 
thirteenth century and flourished for nearly two hundred 
years, the fervor for self-inflicted punishment apparently 
growing with the persecution to which the adherents 
were at first subjected ; 2 the sect declined in the fifteenth 

1 In Constable's Accounts of Great Staughton, Hunts, the following 
entry is found: "i 690-1, Pd. Thomas Hawkins for whipping two 
people yt had smallpox — 8 d." (Cited in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 
art. "Whipping.") Galen prescribed flagellation for lean people who 
desired more adipose tissue. Seneca reports that certain fevers were 
successfully dispelled by blows, and Octavius Augustus is said to have 
been cured of rheumatism by a liberal application of the rod ! (See 
the curious compilation by W. M. Cooper, A History of the Rod in All 
Countries, London, ca. 1867.) 

2 According to the chronicle of Albert of Strassburg, two hundred of 
these flagellants came from Schwaben to Spira, under one principal and 



174 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

century, but many of the peculiar practices were con- 
tinued, especially among the Jansenists, and one may 
indeed find to-day sporadic instances of flagellation in 
the monastic orders. 

Flogging as a punishment imposed for the infraction 
of the civil law was a common practice in ancient Egypt, 
and among the oriental nations of antiquity. It held a 
prominent place in the Roman code, and passed from 
Rome to the nations of medieval Europe. Until the 
beginning of the nineteenth century, it was a common 
sentence for minor offenses, the right of a court to impose 
this punishment being recognized in England and 
America as a tenet of common law. With the develop- 
ment of humanitarian ideals, however, and under the 
influence of a changing conception of the function of 
punishment, the practice came to be gradually restricted. 

In 1820, the flogging of women offenders (which had been 
a common practice in preceding centuries) was entirely 
abolished in England, and during the decades immediately 

two subordinate rulers, whose commands they implicitly obeyed. 
" They were met by crowds of people. Placing themselves within a circle 
on the ground, they stripped, leaving on their bodies only a breech- 
cloth. They then walked with arms outstretched like a cross round and 
round the circle for a time, finally prostrating themselves on the ground. 
They soon after rose, each striking his neighbor with a scourge, armed 
with knots and four iron points, regulating their blows by the singing 
of psalms. At a certain signal the discipline ceased, and they threw 
themselves first on their knees, then flat on the ground, groaning and 
sobbing. On rising the leader gave them a short address, exhorting 
them to implore the mercy of God upon their benefactors and enemies. 
. . . This was followed by another prostration, and then another 
discipline. . . ." (Cited by Cooper, op. cit., pp. 104 f.) 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 1 75 

following, many of the other abuses which had grown up under 
the old practice were corrected. In England to-day, there 
are offenses that may be punished by flogging, but the penalty 
is inflicted in relatively few cases. In the United States, 
corporal punishment is not recognized by the Federal law, 1 
although in at least two states it is still permissible to inflict 
it for certain offenses, — notably wife beating. 

During the past century, also, the practice of inflicting 
corporal punishment has been almost entirely abandoned 
as a means of military and naval discipline, — although 
here, as in the case of corporal punishment in the school 
and the home, the reform has only tardily followed the 
abolition of the rod as a civil penalty. 2 In the merchant 
marine, corporal punishment declined with other cruel 
practices during the latter quarter of the nineteenth 
century. 

The Decline of Corporal Punishment in the School. — 
From the earliest days of formal education until within a 
very few decades corporal punishment has had an im- 
portant place in schools of all types and grades, although 
from very early times, also, there have been vigorous 

1 But the Eighth Amendment of the Federal constitution, which 
forbids the employment of "cruel and unusual punishments," has been 
held not to apply to corporal punishment as the term is commonly 
understood. (Bishop, American Criminal Law, 8th ed., Sect. 947.) 

2 The progress of the movement against corporal punishment is 
perhaps most clearly seen in the statistics presented by Cooper (op. cit., 
P- 355) referring to the decreasing proportion of flogging sentences 
imposed by courts martial in the British army. From 1821 to 1823, 
one half of all of the sentences specified corporal punishment; from 
1825 to 1828, this proportion was reduced to one in five; by 1832, it 
had reached one in six ; in 1865, it had been reduced to one in fifty-four. 



176 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

protests against its employment and innumerable ex- 
pressions of skepticism as to its efficacy. Quintilian 
denounced it as degrading; Plutarch characterized it 
as a method of " incitement far more suitable to slaves 
than to the free, on whom [it] can produce no other 
effect than to induce torpor of mind and disgust for 
exertion " ; Ascham was inspired by the barbarous 
methods of school punishment current in his time to 
write The Scholemaster (published after his death in 
1568) ; Locke held that severe punishment does but 
little good and often very great harm in education, and, 
with Comenius, believed corporal punishment valueless 
as an incentive to intellectual effort, — although, like 
Comenius also, he reserved a place for it as a moral 
corrective ; Rousseau and Herbert Spencer would leave 
punishment very largely to the " discipline of natural 
consequences." 

Except in sporadic instances (of which the Jesuit schools 
are a no table example), these temperate and humane ideals 
of discipline, however, had but little effect upon actual 
school practice until their power was intensified and 
augmented by the general humanitarian movement of 
the nineteenth century and the development of a new 
conception of the function of punishment in the whole 
scheme of life. So complete has been the transforma- 
tion, that the practices not uncommon in American 
schools even fifty years ago are scarcely believable to 
those who have grown up under the new order. The 
rod was inseparably connected with " learning " ; often 



\ ^ CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 1 77 

it was applied very much as parents sometimes adminis- 
ter medicine to their children, not as a corrective for 
present conditions, but as a measure of precaution. 1 
Certainly no sharp line was drawn between the use of 
corporal punishment as a stimulus to mental effort and 
its employment as a punishment for offenses against 
order; it was used indiscriminately for both purposes. 
The Older Severity sanctioned by the Older Ideals. — 
It is not to be inferred, however, that the teachers of 
all the centuries were entirely heartless and cruel. The 
treatment of children both in the home and at school was 
severe as measured by our present standards, but it 
should be remembered that it was part and parcel of the 
spirit of the times. It was not only sanctioned but 
demanded by society; and the teacher who could noil! 
meet this demand could not be secure in his employment J 
Nor, under these conditions, could sporadic and excep- 

1 Speaking of a time much earlier — the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries — Cooper says {op. cit., p.427) : "In those days it would appear 
that boys were flogged, not for any offense, or omission, or unwilling- 
ness, or incapacity to learn, but upon the abstract theory that they 
ought to be flogged. Erasmus bears witness that this was the principle 
upon which he was flogged. He was a favorite with his master, who 
had good hopes of his disposition and abilities, but flogged him to see 
how he could bear the pain, the result being that the rod nearly spoiled 
the child ; his health and spirit were broken by it, and he began to dis- 
like his studies." The famous Colet, dean of St. Paul's, "although he 
delighted in children, and was a good man, thought no discipline 
could be too severe in his school ; and whenever he dined there, one or 
two boys were served up to be flogged by way of dessert." The atti- 
tude toward flogging as an educative measure is nowhere more clearly 
seen in all its inconsistency than the practice of appointing "whipping 
boys" to take the punishments of young princes and noblemen! 

N 



178 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

tional leniency be permanently successful. When educa- 
tion through the birch was the universal rule, a type of 
education that dispensed entirely with this method would 
meet with a social disapproval that would render it 
ineffective. The pupils, thoroughly familiar with the 
current standards, would fail entirely to understand the 
situation, and their natural tendency would be to take 
immediate advantage of the leniency. The transform- 
ation of standards and ideals cannot be accomplished 
in a day. 

The numerous biblical injunctions and precepts regarding 
chastisement have naturally had a large influence in deter- 
mining disciplinary practices among Jewish and Christian 
peoples. Cooper has compiled a number of these and stated 
them in words which, he says, represent literal equivalents 
of the Hebrew original : 

"The fool despises the chastisement of his father, but he 
who receives stripes will be wise: chastise thy son while 
there is hope, but let not thy soul be moved to kill him: 
let one beat the profane, so will the fool become wise; let 
one punish one of understanding, so will he become wise. 
Stripes for the profane, and a rod for the fool's back: the 
young man's strength is his praise; one must retain the 
wicked with hard punishment, and with sore stripes which 
one may feel ; folly dwells in the heart of the child, but the 
rod of correction will drive it far from him. Open chastise- 
ment is better than secret love : the chastisements of a friend 
are well meant, but the kisses of a sycophant are dainty; 
rods and punishments give wisdom, but a boy given up to 
himself shames his mother : chastise thy son so will he 
delight thee, and will do good to thy soul ; the whip makes 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 1 79 

stripes, but an evil tongue breaks bones and all: he who 
loves his child holds it continually under the rod, that he 
may thereafter experience joy in him ; he who restrains his 
child will delight himself in him, and cannot be ashamed 
among his friends ; he is weak toward his child who mourns 
his stripes and is terrified when he shakes; bow his neck 
while he is yet young, make blue his back while he is yet 
little, that he may not become stiff-necked and disobedient 
to thee. Cease not to chastise thy boy, for though thou 
strikest him with the rod thou wilt not kill him; thou 
belatest him with the Rod, but thou preservest his soul from 
hell." 

The Development of Present-day Conceptions of the 
Function of Punishment. — Whether the punishment of 
children as an educative or formative agency should be 
identified with the punishment of adults for offenses 
against the social order may be an open question; but 
there is no doubt that the general movement that has 
resulted in so marked a change in the older conceptions 
of punishment in the legal and civic sense has also been 
the most important factor in transforming the ideals of 
school discipline. This transformation has been re- 
peatedly referred to in the preceding sections. It now 
remains to trace specifically the stages through which 
it has been brought about. 

The idea of punishment has its roots in basic and funda- 
mental instincts. To visit upon an aggressor retaliation 
for real or supposed wrongs is the primitive mode of 
punishment; it involves the fighting instinct and the 
emotion of anger, — recognized forms of innate or " un- 



l8o SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

learned " behavior. 1 There is here no necessary connec- 
tion between the nature and degree of the offense and 
the nature and degree of the vengeance. Torture and 
death may be the penalty for the slightest offenses, or 
for imagined offenses, or for the mere presence of a vic- 
tim at a time when the instinctive forces demand an 
adequate expression. This primitive form from which 
modern ideas of punishment have been slowly evolved 
is known as vindictive or retributive punishment. Adapted 
as it is, although crudely and inequitably, to individual 
survival, it nevertheless takes on, in primitive groups, a 
social form, and its social expression is still in evidence 
in the punishments meted out by mob law and some- 
times so loudly clamored for by a public opinion that has 
been wrought up to a high pitch of collective anger. 

It is probable that the first step away from this primi- 
tive conception of punishment was taken when the first 
feeble glimmerings of the ideal of justice made their 
appearance. Unrestrained vengeance came to be modi- 
fied by the idea of proportionate punishment, — a stage 
of development well represented by the injunction, " An 
eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." 

With the development of stable societies, the ideal of 

1 "This instinct [of pugnacity] . . . ranks with fear as regards the 
great strength of its impulse and the high intensity of the emotion it 
generates. . . . The condition of its excitement is . . . any opposition 
to the free exercise of any impulse, any obstruction to the activity to 
which the creature is impelled by any one of the other instincts. And 
its impulse is to break down any such obstruction, and to destroy what- 
ever offers this opposition." — W. McDougall, Social Psychology, 
Boston, 1910, p. 59. 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT l8l 

justice becomes more clearly dominant. The social 
dangers of individual retaliation are recognized. Hence- 
forth crimes are recognized as " against the state," and 
the exaction of "justice" by the individual becomes 
likewise a crime against the state. The essential injus- 
tice of permitting the injured party to dictate the pun- 
ishment is clearly seen. At this point, also, the ideal 
of justice which has heretofore been satisfied with pro- 
portionate justice becomes strengthened and extended 
to include the idea of protective punishment, which ex- 
presses itself naturally as intimidatory punishment. 
The collective judgment of the social group recognizes 
that wrongdoing must be prevented for the welfare 
of all. The primitive impulses that have hitherto 
applied chiefly to individual survival come to have a 
wider reference. The group, as it were, comes into the 
stage of self-consciousness : it, too, must survive be- 
cause upon its survival depends the welfare of the 
component individuals. 

It was this conception of punishment as a means of 
justice and of social survival that dominated the ad- 
ministration of civil law until comparatively recent 
times, While individuals certainly recognized the in- 
adequacy of the conception, the institutions of society, 
which are changed only very slowly and very gradually, 
reflected little else than the retributive and protective 
ideas. With the great social upheavals of the eighteenth 
century, however, the older conception felt the influence 
of modifying agencies. The humanitarian movement 



182 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

gained momentum. Under the stimulating influence of 
Rousseau and other writers with exceptional ability to 
make a wide popular appeal, the ideas of equality and 
of the essential brotherhood of man came to have a 
wide currency. Prejudices were broken down, and with 
the French Revolution the institutions which crystallized 
them began to crumble. The ideas of civil punishment 
were not the first to feel the influence of these forces of 
change and transformation, for the institutions of justice 
must, of necessity, be ultraconservative ; but, with this 
spirit of change rife on every side, it was inevitable that 
they, too, should sooner or later come under its sway. 

The next stage in the evolution of punishment marked 
a most important advance. It recognized the funda- 
mental need of making the reform of the criminal the 
measure of a punishment's efficiency. Hitherto the cul- 
prit had been an outcast, practically cut off from human 
help and human sympathy. From this time on, he 
became in ever-increasing measure, an object of social 
solicitude. To return him to society rehabilitated and 
made anew became the ideal of the reformatory theory of 
punishment. 

Among the men whose efforts were especially significant 
in initiating this reformatory principle were Cesare Beccaria 
(173 5-1 794), an Italian publicist, and the author of several 
treatises dealing with the reform of criminal law ; Jeremy 
Bentham (1 748-1832), the English philosopher and jurist, 
whose efforts to reconcile law and morality were vital factors 
in replacing the retributive and tempering the protective 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 1 83 

theories of punishment; and John Howard (1 726-1 790), 
whose efforts toward the reform of prisons and workhouses 
have made his name immortal. 

The final stage in the evolution of punishment is 
represented by the movement which has as its ideal 
eliminating the need of punishment by preventing crime. 
The ideal is, of course, Utopian, and yet many steps may 
be taken to reduce the amount of crime and so do away 
in a measure with the necessity of punishment. These 
steps are illustrated by the movement for vocational 
education, the playground movement, the agitation 
against child labor, the efforts to reconcile capital and 
labor and to pass minimum-wage laws, and finally the 
propaganda for preventing the breeding of defective 
and delinquent types. In general these various move- 
ments aim either to remedy the economic conditions of 
life, to provide for the wholesome employment of leisure, 
or to insure, through eugenic practices, an elimination of 
degenerate " stock." 

New Prejudices have replaced the Old. — Under the 
influence of the humanitarian ideal, and of its offspring, 
the " reformatory " conception of punishment, social 
and collective prejudices of a very profound type have 
gradually developed until to-day they possess a strength 
that must be reckoned with by every policy of punish- 
ment, whether in adult civil life or in school life. Forms 
of corrective treatment that were once taken for granted 
now arouse abhorrence and disgust. One of the earliest 
restrictions of corporal punishment as a civil penalty 



1 84 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

prohibited the flogging of women offenders, and one of 
the earliest effective reactions against corporal punish- 
ment in the schools was to interdict the whipping of 
girls. In both cases, this was the effective expression 
of a new prejudice, — an extension of the traditional 
respect for womanhood which made it inconsistent with 
the public sense of decency to subject girls and women 
to bodily chastisement no matter how great the offense 
for which the punishment was inflicted. Once having 
gained momentum, the prejudice quickly extended to 
males. Corporal punishment can be most effectively 
applied only when certain parts of the body are exposed, 
and the notion that self-respect in this very personal 
sense could not in justice be sacrificed to the necessities 
of punishment has gradually eliminated the chastise- 
ment of adolescents in schools. Corporal punishment 
is now almost entirely limited to preadolescent children 
both in the school and in the home, and it is possible 
that the sense of indelicacy which now effectually pre- 
vents the use of the rod with girls, and with boys who 
have reached the age of sexual self-consciousness, may 
be extended downward until it includes the youngest 
children ; but there are obvious reasons why this develop- 
ment, if it ever takes place, will come very slowly. 

It should be added that another factor has operated 
to limit corporal punishment. There can be no doubt 
that there are certain perverted impulses which find 
pleasurable gratification in inflicting pain. Indeed, the 
alienist recognizes this form of abnormality, and has 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 1 85 

given it a name which need not be repeated here. 
Whether this impulse is inherited or whether it is ac- 
quired through practicing chastisement, is debatable, 
but it is probably true that one who wreaks one's temper 
habitually in the infliction of pain is likely to develop 
this perverted taste. Suffice it to say that, in the past, 
men and women who have craved this gratification have 
deliberately sought the kind of work that permitted its 
enjoyment, and have not infrequently found places in 
schools where the severe treatment of boys and girls 
was sanctioned. Most of the scandals that occasionally 
find their way into the newspapers, involving reports 
of the most heartless and cruel treatment of children, 
would doubtless reveal upon investigation the existence 
of this perverted impulse. 

Difficulties involved in Reconciling the Different 
Functions of Punishment. — It is characteristic of social 
evolution that rapid advances due to the development 
of new ideals are followed by apparently retrogressive 
movements; at one point or another the new theories 
fail to work in actual practice, and a readjustment is 
' necessary. This is clearly seen in the reaction that 
followed the French Revolution. The excesses and other 
obvious symptoms of a lack of adjustment made inevi- 
table a temporary movement toward the older order, — 
a movement that found expression throughout the terri- 
tory that had been influenced by the eighteenth-century 
upheavals. The reaction itself was extreme and gave 
rise to a series of counterreactions, notably the revolu- 



1 86 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

tions of 1832, 1848, and 1870, alternating with tempo- 
rary triumph of the conservative forces. This general 
mode of " zigzag " progress, most clearly seen in the 
history of France, may be taken as characteristic of 
social evolution, and it has a striking analogy in the 
uneven progress of mental development in the indi- 
vidual. 1 

The development of the modern conception of punish- 
ment has followed a similarly zigzag course, although 
the actual retrogressive movements are not so clearly 
in evidence because actual procedure in the administra- 
tion of justice is, as we have pointed out, ultraconserva- 
tive, and has barely time to " catch up " with theory 
before a dominant doctrine has lost the extreme and 
radical features which a new and untried theory almost 
always represents. It is true, however, that the ideal 
of reform has suggested many changes in procedure 
which have had to be modified and limited because the 
time was not yet ripe for them. Thus the " parole " 
system which releases convicted lawbreakers and per- 
mits them to follow their regular employment under the 
supervision of officers of the court was successfully ap- 
plied at the outset, but has in some cases led to an 
unfortunate attitude toward, if not to a pronounced 
disrespect for, the law. 2 

1 In the "practice curve," for example. See below, ch. xiv. 

2 " In his recent report as director of the Gatzert Foundation, Dr. 
Stevenson Smith points out that leniency toward criminals is most 
successful when it is first practiced, and that as probation becomes more 
general it is less effective. The value of probation depends entirely 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 1 87 

Leniency and Disrespect for Law. — These reactionary 
movements are often really sincere attempts toward 
the correction of existing evils rather than mere expres- 
sions of a conversatism that hates change. New ideas 
fail to work, and experimenting with them creates con- 
ditions that demand remedy. Thus the growth of the 
ideals of reformatory as opposed to merely protective 
punishment and trie doing away with the severer modes 
of treating lapses from law and order are probably in 
some measure responsible for the increase in lawlessness 
and in serious crime which constitutes one of the grave 
problems of modern civilization, especially in the countries 
where these ideals have found the widest expression, — 
namely, France and the United States. 

From 1850 to 1890, the proportion of criminals in the popu- 
lation of the United States increased 445 per cent ; the popu- 
lation increased only 170 per cent in the same period. A 
more rigid enforcement of the law would explain this increase 
were it confined to the sections that have during this period 
passed from the cruder life of the frontier where lawlessness 
is perhaps inevitable to the stage of stable civil government. 
As a matter of fact, however, the increase was general 
throughout the country. From 1890 to 1904 the number of 
juvenile offenders increased approximately one fifth more 
rapidly than the population increased, and in some states 

upon the mental attitude of the probationer. We need much more 
careful study of individual cases with reference to the mental habits 
previous to the crime and the attitude of the culprit toward his crime 
and toward society after his conviction, in order to secure the best 
results from the probation system." (Editorial in Journal of Educational 
Psychology, vol. iii, 1913, p. 409.) 



1 88 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

the proportion was even doubled during these fourteen years. 
Juvenile delinquency has been admittedly increasing in the 
larger cities during the last twenty years. The statistics 
revealing the large proportional increase in homicides have 
been frequently quoted, and may probably be safely taken 
as symptomatic of a general increase in serious crime. The 
figures in the mortality tables of the Federal census giving 
the proportion of deaths from homicide in the registration area 
are difficult to interpret because of the gradual extension of 
this area from year to year. 1 Most perplexing of all of the 
statistics, however, are those that reveal the marked increase 
of homicides in the larger cities. Here the proportion rose 
from 91 murders in the million of population in 1880 to 117 
in 1890 and nearly 150 in 1910. 2 

Leniency in School Government and the Increase in 
Crime. — In how far the transformed methods of disci- 
pline in American schools have had an influence upon the 
attitude of the present younger generation toward law 
and toward the rights of others, it is impossible to say. 

1 According to the census reports, there were in the "registration 
area" 28 murders to the million of population in 1904, 51 in 1906, 67 
in 1908, and 59 in 1909. In the rural districts of the registration area 
the proportions were as follows: 6 to the million in 1904, 12 in 1905, 
33 in 1906, 41 in 1907, and 45 in 1908. In certain selected cities of the 
registration area, the homicides numbered 55 to the million in 1904, 
99 to the million in 1906, and 143 to the million in 1908. As the regis- 
tration area is extended, it comes gradually to include those portions of 
the country where statistics of mortality have not heretofore been care- 
fully recorded ; this probably means that these sections are also those 
in which lawlessness is most frequent; hence the rapid increase noted. 
At the same time, there is abundant evidence that there has been 
actual increase in the proportion of homicides during this period. 

2 The significance of our national homicide record cannot be thor- 
oughly appreciated until we contrast our record with that of other 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 1 89 

It is true that the second generation of the immigrant 
population (coming chiefly from northern Europe) re- 
veals a higher proportion of criminality than the first 
generation; that is, the generation that has passed 
through our public schools is on the whole less law-abiding 
than were the immigrants themselves; and while this 
may be due to other factors, the responsibility of the 
school for failing to inculcate effective ideals of respect 
for law can hardly be evaded. It has been during this 
period that disciplinary measures have been most rad- 
ically transformed, and this transformation has come 

civilized countries. The following table is based on data taken from the 
Encyclopaedia Britannica (nthed., Art. "Temperance ") with the excep- 
tion of the items for the United States, New Zealand, and Canada : 

Number of persons in the million 
Country of total population tried for 

murder annually 

Italy 154 

Spain 119 

Austria 4° 

Ireland 33 

Belgium 30 

France 27 

Scotland 21 

Germany 16 

England 16 

Holland n 

New Zealand 6 

Canada 5 {convictions) 

United States 30 {commitments) 

When it is remembered that only a small proportion of the total 
number brought to trial for murder in the United States are convicted 
and committed, the unfortunate showing made by this country is all 
the more striking. The present (1914) homicide rate for the United 
States as a whole has been placed by competent authorities at 65 in the 
million annually. 



190 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

first in those sections receiving large proportions of the 
immigrant tide, — that is, in large cities. 

In New York City, for example, corporal punishment 
has been forbidden since 1878 by ruling of the Board of 
Education. The difficulties which are experienced in 
maintaining a reasonable measure of obedience from 
the pupils in this system are recounted by Professor 
McMurry, a member of the School Inquiry Commission 
which, under the chairmanship of Professor Paul Hanus, 
made a survey of the New York schools in 1911-1912 : 

" Saying nothing of the fact that to many pupils punish- 
ments more cruel than corporal punishment are applied, 
and that the by-law forbidding corporal punishment is often 
ignored, the great fact is that many class-room teachers are 
at their wits' end every day to discover how to give instruc- 
tion while certain pupils constantly cause disorder. A large 
proportion of their time and energy is expended merely 
trying to get on with such pupils, until ill health results 
from worry and exhaustion. 

"Although any educational system that enforces compul- 
sory attendance is under obligations to protect each pupil, not 
only from physical but also from moral contagion, yet it is a 
fact that the great majority are influenced harmfully, through 
no fault of their own, by observing examples of disobedience. 

"Finally the troublesome pupils themselves, conscious of 
the powerlessness of their teachers, become confirmed in 
lawless habits in the very place that is intended to teach 
them to observe the rights of others; and these lawless 
habits, carried into after life, lead directly to the lawless 
gangs and rowdyism so common to-day." * 

1 F. M. McMurry, Elementary School Standards, Yonkers, N.Y., 
1913, P- 74- 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 191 

Upon the basis of these facts, the Commission recom- 
mended that the by-law prohibiting corporal punishment 
be rescinded, and that the right to inflict corporal punish- 
ment be delegated to the principals of the various schools, 
and to the teachers of special classes for unruly children 
when such classes are organized. The recommendation, 
however, contemplated the exercise of this authority 
under very definite restrictions : (1) medical examina- 
tion of pupils prior to the infliction of corporal punish- 
ment ; (2) the written consent of the parent or guardian 
where it is possible to secure this ; (3) the presence of 
an adult witness ; (4) the preservation of careful records 
of the cause of punishment and methods used. 

In answer to the question, Have the more lenient 
ideals and methods of school and home discipline 
operated to increase disrespect for law? it is safe to say 
that they have had some influence, although it would 
be unjust to shoulder upon these methods a very large 
share of the responsibility. That they have been con- 
tributing factors it is reasonable to infer. 1 And the cause 

1 That laxity in school discipline may give rise to an increase in crime 
is too ready an inference to be employed without great caution. One 
with ultraconservative tendencies is especially likely to infer causal 
connections of this sort without any evidence that such connections 
exist. In every generation, the conservative will proclaim that disas- 
ter is certain to come from the "new" practices. An American school- 
master writing in 1837 complains of the laxity in the schools of that 
period : "It is to this new-fashioned laxity of rule that we may in part 
attribute, I think, much of the insubordination and riot, yes, even 'Lynch 
law,' which has crept into our schools and families, as well as pervaded 
like a pestilence over our states." — Annals of the American Institute 
of Instruction, vol. viii, p. 80. 



192 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

of whatever degenerating influence they have exerted 
must be sought, not in the fact that the humanitarian 
ideals are inherently weak and ineffective, but rather 
in the fact that they have been applied emotionally 
and not intelligently. Leniency has become weak 
sentimentalism. Mastery has given place all too often 
to fawning ; " obedience " has been sought by petting 
and cajolery ; sympathy has degenerated into a mawkish 
coquetry for the goodwill of the child. In short, from 
the extreme of rigor, school discipline has swung in many 
instances to the extreme of indulgence, — stimulated 
by a crude philosophy in which highly emotionalized 
shibboleths have been mistaken for fundamental prin- 
ciples. Soft-heartedness, which is a prime virtue, has 
been combined with sof t-headedness, — and when this 
happens, disaster is inevitable. 

Much more significant than appears on the surface 
is the statement in the report of the New York School 
Inquiry that " many punishments more cruel than cor- 
poral punishment have been applied, and that the law 
forbidding corporal punishment is often ignored." This 
is true, not only of New York City, but also of other 
communities in which a prejudice has grown up against 
corporal punishment. Where laws which both pupils 
and teachers know to be in force are openly evaded, 
there can be small hope that an effective respect for law 
will be engendered. 

The Place of Corporal Punishment. — It would not be 
right to infer from apparent inefficiency of lenient ideals 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 1 93 

and methods of discipline that the principle of corporal 
punishment should be reaffirmed as a tenet of school dis- 
cipline. Far from it. As has been suggested, every new 
advance is likely to be followed by a reaction, which is due 
to the fact that the new ideal has overshot the mark of pres- 
ent practicability. On the whole, the doing away with the 
rod of correction has constituted a most wholesome reform 
in school practice in spite of some of the evils that have 
accompanied it. The problem is to recognize the evils not 
as a justification of a complete return to the older order, 
but as a stimulus to further effort in the direction of prog- 
ress. Democracy and the rule of the people brought with 
it many abuses and shortcomings ; the highly emotional 
radicals refused to recognize these evils; the highly 
emotional conservatives delighted to parade them as 
evidences of the inherent failure of the democratic prin- 
ciple, and as good and sufficient reasons for going back 
to the former condition. But the great mass of right- 
thinking and clear-thinking people quickly recognized, 
both that the new abuses must be abated and that this 
must be done without returning to the old order. The 
situation is precisely the same in connection with school 
discipline. There are many who will see in the new 
practices no dangers or defects; there are others who 
can find nothing but retrogression and decay, and who 
sigh heavily for the " good old times " when boys and 
girls were " made to behave. " But the path of reason 
and of clear thinking is to recognize the evils and 
,plan to correct them, while at the same time the un- 
o 



194 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

doubted virtues inherent in the new order are sedulously 
and jealously guarded. This is by far the most difficult 
way in which to meet the problem, but it is the only 
effective way. 

Let us conclude, then, that the day of corporal punish- 
ment as an important agency in school discipline has 
passed never to return. And let us also conclude that 
its passing is not yet complete and cannot be complete 
until social customs and prejudices have been thoroughly 
adjusted to the new order and until effective methods of 
dealing with acute disciplinary difficulties have been dis- 
covered, standardized, and made effective by general rec- 
ognition. The period through which we are passing is in 
every respect a transitional period. Here we must use old 
devices and agencies if necessary when the new methods 
and agencies fail, and pending the discovery of something 
better. It is the writer's opinion that the right of corporal 
punishment should be reserved by the people to the teachers 
and officers of the people's schools. Respect for law must 
be engendered, and those to whom the task is delegated 
must have requisite authority. But the authority should 
be safeguarded by careful restrictions; it should be 
exercised with extreme caution ; and it should gradually 
come to operate entirely through vicarious channels — 
that is, it should be the possibility of such punishment, 
rather than its actual infliction that will fulfill the desired 
regulative function. 

The Infliction of Corporal Punishment. — To the 
young teacher, advice regarding corporal punishment 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 1 95 

should be replete with cautions. Wherever this penalty- 
is forbidden by law or by board ruling, it is hardly 
necessary to say that it should in no case be applied, 
and any " laying on of hands " should be interpreted 
as coming under this injunction. Where public opinion 
is against the practice, it should have practically the 
same effect as a prescription. It is said 1 that the recent 
decisions of the courts in cases where teachers have been 
brought to trial for inflicting corporal punishment have 
been almost exclusively against the teacher, — a state 
of affairs quite different from that which prevailed in 
the past when the teacher's contentions were almost 
invariably upheld by the courts. Where corporal 
punishment is " expected " by the community as a part 
of school discipline, — as it still is in some parts of the 
country, — it is well to get on without it just as long 
as one can do so and still retain one's authority. But 
where it is expected, it sometimes happens that to 
" whip " is the only avenue to the establishment of one's 
authority. In general, if corporal punishment is per- 
mitted, it is much better to make use of it temperately 
than to resort to expulsion; certainly, in such cases, 
one should not hesitate to use it if other measures are 
ineffective. 

To the young teacher who has decided to use this meas- 
ure, the following specific suggestions may be helpful : 
i. Never administer punishment in anger. , 
2. If a whip is applied, use a light " switch " over the 
1 By A. E. Winship in an editorial in the Journal of Education (Boston). 



196 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

backs of the legs or a light ruler on the palms of the 
hands. Do not strike the head, box the ears, or 
" shake " the offender. 

3. If possible, have an adult witness. 

4. Do not administer such punishment before other 
pupils. 

5. Obtain the consent of the parent if possible before- 
hand. (To confer with parents beforehand will often 
preclude the necessity of punishment.) 

6. Keep a record of the offense, the nature of the 
punishment, and the time and manner of its infliction. 

It was said above that methods must be devised to do 
what physical coercion and corporal punishment have 
been supposed to do in the past. We have already 
referred to some of these methods, — insuring a coercive 
influence of the work itself and of the social group, — 
but some of the numerous specific devices that are 
employed in present-day day schools will undoubtedly 
be used at times by almost every teacher, and these 
deserve a chapter by themselves. 

Questions and Exercises 

1. Professor James Sully once said that children actually 
crave punishment after committing faults. Do you recall 
in your own childhood instances of this sort? Did punish- 
ment bring to you a feeling of relief? 

2. Analyze your own attitude toward corporal punish- 
ment in childhood. Did it appeal to you as worse than 
other penalties? If it was applied, did the experience em- 
bitter you toward the one inflicting the punishment ? 



CORPORAL PUNISHMENT 197 

3. As a general rule, a punishment that is employed as a 
corrective for immoral or forbidden activities should not be 
employed as a stimulus to greater effort in the regular school 
work. Can you justify this rule? 

4. An obvious reason why the teacher should not inflict 
punishment in anger or in a vindictive mood is that he will 
run the risk of physical injury to the pupil. Are there other 
reasons ? 

5. Add to the instances given in the text illustrating how 
ideals gradually become deeply seated prejudices. (For 
example, the humanitarian ideal has resulted in a prejudice 
against the infliction of humiliating punishments. Have 
similar consequences followed from the general acceptance 
of other ideals ?) 

6. Assuming that serious crime has increased in the 
United States more rapidly than the population has in- 
creased, to what causes would you attribute this increase? 
(The increase in wealth, and economic evils, have been 
blamed in this connection. Are there other possible fac- 
tors?) 

7. What steps might be taken by the public schools to 
check the apparent increase in disrespect for law and for 
the rights of others? What is the relation of school disci- 
pline to this problem ? 

8. What would be your judgment as to the possibility 
of eliminating corporal punishment entirely from education, 
both in the home and in the school ? 

9. Some authorities maintain that corporal punishment 
in school and home will tend to offset the "softening" in- 
fluences of modern civilization. Discuss this theory. 

10. Corporal punishment is forbidden in the public schools 
of France and of Japan. It is a common practice in the 
public schools of Germany, and not uncommon in England. 
Does any significance attach to these comparisons ? 



CHAPTER XII 

Contemporary School Penalties 

Some of the penalties that were common in the old- 
time school have been abandoned even more completely 
than corporal punishment. Perhaps the most notable 
of these are the practices of having pupils assume un- 
comfortable or even painful positions and expose them- 
selves to ridicule (as by wearing a " dunce-cap "). With 
the reaction against corporal punishment (which, it will 
be remembered, was due in part to the fact that this 
punishment often involved a sacrifice of self-respect) has 
gone a reaction against other penalties in which the effec- 
tive " sting " was public humiliation or shame. The dis- 
astrous effect of humiliation upon the individual was not 
a matter of concern so long as the function of punish- 
ment was conceived as either retaliation or mere pro- 
tection. But when the ideas of reform and prevention 
came to the fore, the inconsistency of imposing humili- 
ating penalties was quickly recognized. The penalties, 
then, that are to be consistent with the new order must 
not only be free from the necessity of touching or exposing 
any partof the body ordinarily covered, but theymust also 
be devoid as far as possible of any tendency to shame 
or humiliate the individual publicly. It is true that some- 

198 



CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL PENALTIES I99 

thing that would make for the efficiency of the punish- 
ment is hereby lost, but this is only another instance 
of paying a certain price for a greater gain. 

Contemporary School Penalties. — The penalties im- 
posed for occasional lapses from good conduct in the 
school in which an effective " fashion " of order and 
industry has been established need not delay us long, 
for the very fact that the attitude of the pupils is favor- 
able to school work will mean that mere admonition from 
the teacher will be all that is necessary. Where this 
is unavailing, the preservation of the healthful school 
spirit will demand that immediate steps of a more heroic 
character must be adopted — for the principal or the 
teacher who has succeeded in building up a wholesome 
fashion of discipline must guard it most jealously. 
A suspension from the classroom or from the school 
for a brief period and a conference with the pupil's 
parents will usually bring the desired results in such cases. 
For the younger children, some of whom will be sub- 
ject to occasional periods of irritability or fretfulness, — 
which may perhaps develop into spasms of " temper," 
— the effective treatment is similar to that employed 
in good homes under similar conditions, — confinement 
in a room by themselves, where they will have an op- 
portunity to calm down, and where they will be removed 
from an opportunity of disturbing or " infecting " 
others. 

"Solitary Treatment." — In at least one modern ele- 
mentary school building a room is provided known as 



200 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

the " think room " for the reception *of these cases. It 
is small, but well lighted, — not the traditional " dark 
room " or closet, and it is furnished with a single chair. 
Troublesome pupils are sent to this room and required 
to remain there alone and without books or other means 
of diversion, with a suggestion that they " think over " 
the matter. A pupil thus incarcerated may yell lustily 
at the outset, but after the storm has subsided, and he 
has an opportunity to settle down into a reflective mood, 
the "cure " is usually quick and effective. 

There is sound psychology back of this proposal, and 
it is possible that an application of the principle may 
serve even in critical cases to take the place of corporal 
punishment and of the penalties involving public shame 
and humiliation. The mental attitude induced by soli- 
tude is quite different from that involved in the social 
relationships, and one of the first steps in " reforming " 
a recalcitrant is to remove him from the companionship 
of those who will aid and abet him in his wrongdoing. 
A principal has reported the following case illustrative of 
the beneficial influence of this type of treatment : 

Three eighth-grade boys were implicated in an act of 
vandalism, and their names were reported by the teacher 
who was in charge of the room. Each of these boys was 
taken separately and placed in a room by himself to think 
the matter over. After an hour of this treatment, the three 
were brought together and told to discuss with one another 
the offense and to devise adequate means of reparation. 
The plan worked successfully. The preliminary reflection 
had led them all to a real and effective repentance for their 



CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL PENALTIES 201 

misconduct, and the thoughts that were uppermost in their 
minds when they were thus unexpectedly brought together 
led at once to mutual confessions and promises which very 
adequately fulfilled the purpose of a penalty. 

If facilities are available, this solitary treatment could, 
perhaps, be applied as an effective coercive measure 
in schools where the wrong fashions of order prevail; 
but the measure is not likely to be so uniformly success- 
ful here, for the entire pupil body is, by hypothesis, 
badly infected with virus of disorder and disobedience, 
and it is quite possible that the whole matter would be 
looked upon as indicative of the impotence of those in 
authority to deal effectively with the situation. How- 
ever, in schools where other methods cannot well be 
applied, this proposal is worthy of trial. 

Satiation as a Penalty. — Punishment through satia- 
tion, while sometimes most effective, is not often prac- 
ticable in school. The results of forbidden and injurious 
activities will often be disastrous both to the individual 
and to the group before the point has been reached where 
disgust takes the place of enjoyment. " Nature " will 
usually compel a change of activity long before this 
point has been reached, consequently if the principle of 
satiation is to be successfully applied, the teacher must 
see to it that the forbidden activity is continued long 
after the pupil desires to discontinue it. 

The following case illustrates the conditions under which 
the principle may be successfully applied — and it is clear 



202 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

from the illustration that these conditions can only very in- 
frequently be fulfilled. 

A schoolroom was so constructed that the ceiling was sup- 
ported by iron pillars surmounted by Corinthian capitals. 
Once when the teacher was absent from the room for a few 
moments, a boy yielded to an impulse which had often possessed 
him, — namely, to "shin" up one of the pillars. When the 
teacher returned, she found the boy perched at the summit with 
an arm and one leg over a corner of the capital. She remarked 
pleasantly upon his exploit and told him to stay there. It was 
fun for a few moments, but the unnatural posture quickly 
became uncomfortable, and it was not very long before the 
adventurous lad was longing for permission to come down. He 
saw, however, that the joke was turned, and said nothing. 
Finally, when the teacher saw that the discomfort had ap- 
proached agony, she relented and told' the boy to take his 
seat. The climbing of pillars, it is hardly necessary to say, 
was not repeated. 

Rebukes and scoldings vary widely in their efficacy. 
In the well-ordered school, the slightest rebuke may, 
as we have suggested, be extremeiy effective. Where 
disorder prevails, admonitions and scoldings are likely 
to have little force. Their employment is also to be 
avoided because they serve all too well to advertise to 
the pupils the inefficiency of the teacher. The teacher 
is lost the moment his or her helplessness becomes ap- 
parent, and rebukes which lead to ineffective threats, 
and finally grow into a stormy passion of angry words, 
quickly produce an impossible situation. To " curb the 
tongue " in such situations is undoubtedly the best policy 
for the teacher to pursue. 



CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL PENALTIES 203 

"The great value of scolding is in its immediate result, 
like scratching a sore. It is saying what ought to be said 
in a way that ought not to be used. It is the angry setting 
forth of truth. It is egotistical. The scolder is thinking of 
himself, his wasted time, and pains, his offended dignity, 
his wounded vanity. It grows on him. The manner begins 
to count more than the matter. The listener ignores the 
what and resents the how. The scolder vitiates the atmos- 
phere and poisons his own disposition. Nothing ages one 
sooner than scolding. The cure is simple. Count ten before 
scolding, then make two pleasant noises with the voice 
afterwards." 1 

Keeping after school is probably the most common 
method of punishment now used in American schools. 
It has its advantages, especially if it is made to represent 
the principle of solitary treatment mentioned above. 
One of the best teachers of our acquaintance makes 
retention after school practically her sole recourse in 
discipline. Sometimes, although not frequently, she 
remains with a rebellious pupil for two hours, — but he 
is usually conquered before that time. By relentlessly 
carrying out the penalty, whenever its employment is 
necessary, she has made it a powerful deterrent. The 
practice suffers, however, from two defects : first, it 
keeps the teacher from getting the exercise and diversion 
in the open air that every teacher should try to take 
between four and six ; and secondly, it is likely to inter- 
fere with the janitor's work. On the whole, however, it 

1 F. M. Braselman, in the Washington Irving High School Writs of 
Assistance, New York, 1914, p. 225. 



204 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

represents a mode of punishment that may be made to 
fulfill very effectively the conditions laid down earlier 
in the discussion : it does not necessarily involve public 
shame and humiliation, it is not " corporal " punishment, 
and, with the normal pupil, it usually has an effective 
" sting." There would seem to be some injustice 
involved in the case of pupils who have regular tasks and 
duties outside of school after school hours, — particularly, 
boys in towns and cities who carry papers, and it is 
possible that courts would rule that the authority of the 
teacher ends with the end of the school day. Conditions 
that are unjust must, in any case, be avoided. 

" Keeping in " at recess is also a common penalty, but 
it is the writer's belief that this is bad practice. The 
room needs airing, the teacher will very likely have 
supervisory duties on the playground, and the penalty 
is usually so slight as to be quite ineffective. 

Demerit marks, successive accumulations of which will 
lead to the infliction of other penalties varying in inten- 
sity have been employed with good results in some 
schools. Their use is especially recommended by J. S. 
Taylor, a district superintendent in New York City, in a 
book : which evidently grew out of the difficulties of 
maintaining order in a system where corporal punishment 
is forbidden. 

The plan proposes keeping a book in which merits and 
demerits are carefully recorded. "A space is made for each 
day because a boy often wants to know when he received his 

1 J. S. Taylor, Class Management, New York, 1903, pp. 51 f. 



CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL PENALTIES 205 

marks. It is important for pupils to believe that the book 
is absolutely correct. It should be kept in ink so that there 
will be no temptation to erase the marks. The pupil who 
keeps the book must have the confidence of the class, and 
just as soon as he loses that he should be discharged. 

"It is probably better to have two monitors [monitorial 
appointments, by the way, play an important part in Dr. 
Taylor's entire scheme of discipline and management], one 
for the debits and one for the credits. These monitors sit 
near the teacher and always put the record into the teacher's 
desk before the class is dismissed." 

The debits and credits are then transferred to the general 
"account" of each pupil, and for the following week the 
favors and privileges are given or withheld on the basis of 
this record. Dr. Taylor maintains that this leaves no 
chance of biased judgment and that the device serves ad- 
mirably to impress upon the pupil's mind the fact that he 
alone earns or sacrifices the rewards by his own behavior. 
As a suggestion of the way in which the system operates 
in administering discipline, the following directions for the 
guidance of the young teacher are quoted : 

" (a) A glance in the direction of the offender. 

"(b) A quiet summoning to the desk by beckoning, and 
a kind but firm rejoinder that his conduct is objectionable. 

" (c) A second summoning and one demerit. 

" (d) Two demerits. 

"(e) A reprimand and five demerits. 

" (/) Tell the pupil to change his seat temporarily and sit 
by his teacher's desk, informing him quietly that, inasmuch 
as it is necessary to watch him, you want to make it as con- 
venient for yourself as possible ; this and five demerits more. 

"(g) Refuse to allow him to go on with the lesson; let 
him sit with his arms folded for five or ten minutes, then let 
him write a careful letter on the propriety of obeying one's 



206 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

teacher. If this is not properly done, charge up a lesson 
against him and ask him to bring it next morning. More 
demerits." 

Reduced to cold print, and viewed in the light of 
fundamental principles (and of what we know of child 
nature), this elaborate system of merits and demerits 
seems to be about the last word in hopeless inefficiency, 
— although it would doubtless work well enough in some 
instances. Its defects (from the point of view of theory) 
will serve to illustrate the general defects of a demerit 
system in discipline : (i) It imposes a laborious task of 
bookkeeping upon the teacher ; (2) it fails to provide an 
immediate and unequivocal " sting " for offenses and 
lapses, and consequently fails of the chief function of 
the penalty, which is to associate with the offense a 
deterring feeling of unpleasantness ; and (3) it makes for 
delay in the administration of justice. It would work 
effectively only under the condition that the demerits 
themselves came to be endowed with the essential 
" sting " and this would be possible only by providing, 
for an accumulation of demerits, actual punishments 
which would be feared much more keenly than those 
which Dr. Taylor proposes (chiefly loss of monitorial 
positions). The " advice " which we have quoted also 
breaks a cardinal rule of school management by making 
punishments out of legitimate school tasks (" Charge up 
a lesson against him and ask him to bring it in next morn- 
ing"). We should also criticize the practice of having 
pupils sit by the teacher, — first, because it is usually 



CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL PENALTIES 207 

totally ineffective and not infrequently, indeed, a source 
of still greater disturbance and loss of authority ; and, 
secondly, because, if it is effective, its efficiency depends 
upon the feeling of public shame and humilation which 
to our mind is just as abhorrent as corporal punishment. 

The withdrawal of privileges is another means of 
punishment that has been commonly employed. Dr. 
Taylor, indeed, bases his system of demerits largely 
upon this factor. If a monitorial position is ardently 
desired by the troublesome pupil, he may be impelled 
to earn the appointment by good behavior. If it is not 
desired, then the " bribe " will fail of its desired effect. 
The granting of a half holiday to meritorious pupils, 
or the privilege of early dismissal, is sometimes effective. 
In the New York system, for example, " good " pupils 
may be dismissed early on Fridays. We do not protest 
against these devices because they will not " work/' 
but because they are, in essence, " bribes," and we believe 
that any method of school discipline which is based 
upon this policy is charged with dynamite. The policy 
is likewise to be condemned because, in effect, it makes 
school attendance during regular school hours a punish- 
ment. 

Conferring with parents will often prove a most suc- 
cessful means of solving disciplinary difficulties, and its 
efficacy should be tested by teachers much more fre- 
quently than is commonly the practice. The chief 
dangers to be avoided here are that the pupil himself 
may gain the idea that the teacher cannot " manage " 



208 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

him, and that a parent may be encouraged to deny the 
right of the teacher to administer necessary punish- 
ment, The essential relationship of the teacher as in 
loco parentis should never be surrendered. 

Suspension. — This is the " natural " punishment for 
school offenses, — a loss of " privilege " which ought to 
have an effective " sting.' ' The difficulty lies in the 
fact that it does not always possess this virtue. In 
handling a critical situation, it is often necessary for the 
welfare of the majority to send pupils from school and 
to keep them from school until reasonable obedience, 
order, and industry are assured. Where the compulsory 
attendance laws are well enforced, the pupil of school age 
will either have to remain in school or be committed to a 
reformatory, and where the right kind of cooperation 
exists between the school authorities and the juvenile 
courts, it is often a simple matter to settle troublesome 
cases by the expedient of suspension, depending upon a 
wholesome fear of serious consequences to wheel the 
recalcitrant into line. In some cases, however, this 
cooperation is lacking. Those intrusted with the admin- 
istration of the compulsory-attendance law will not 
always stand behind the school authorities; they will 
maintain that the boy or the girl has not committed an 
offense which would justify him in being characterized 
as an incorrigible, although he may be so troublesome in 
school as to make him a source of constant disorder. It 
is, after all, not the grave derelictions that worry the 
teacher ; it is rather the little annoyances, — the halting 



CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL PENALTIES 209 

obedience, the sneaking mischief, the crude deceit with 
regard to little things, and the constant search for means 
of making trouble that will not be so serious as to merit 
drastic treatment, but which none the less gives rise in the 
aggregate to nine tenths of the loss in school efficiency 
that must be attributed to disorder. 

It is our belief that, where the right of corporal punish- 
ment is taken away from the teacher, the right of sus- 
pension should be so clearly safeguarded that these 
trivial disturbances can be adequately met by this 
penalty. It is hardly befitting a teacher's work to be 
compelled to resort to the petty and ineffective devices 
cited above: having pupils sit by her side; keeping 
elaborate sets of merits and demerits the prize or penalty 
of which involves a monitorial position which few desire ; 
an hour cut each week from a school day that has 
already been shortened pretty close to the vanishing 
point; or assigning extra lessons which all children 
should have the privilege of learning if they are worth 
learning. 

Reporting Cases of Discipline to the Principal. — The 
efficacy of this policy depends very obviously upon the 
attitude and the efficiency of the principal. There are 
some schools in which a beginning teacher receives just 
the right kind of support in just the right amount; 
there are others in which the support really weakens the 
classroom teacher's authority ; and there are still others 
in which the principal believes that the teacher should 
be left to work out his or her own salvation, no matter 
p 



2IO SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

how demoralized the classroom may become in the 
process. Policies differ in various systems of schools. 
In some, there is an effective spirit of cooperation; in 
others, the " interference " of the principal in classroom 
discipline is disapproved by the superintendent. 

Personally it is the writer's belief that a supervising 
principal — and especially a man who is placed in 
charge of a number of young women teachers — can 
earn his salary in no better way than by giving them 
help and support in the disciplinary control of their 
pupils. He cannot afford to let them depend upon him 
exclusively, but he can demonstrate some wholesome 
lessons in the attitude which boys and men should have 
toward women. He should see that the authority of 
the teacher is not permitted to become ineffective simply 
because she lacks physical strength, and he should re- 
member that an important lesson for every boy to learn 
is that he cannot with impunity be disrespectful to any 
woman, no matter how great the provocation. 

The writer has had occasion more than once to adminis- 
ter this lesson to adolescent boys. He recalls one boy who 
was sent to the office from the room of a sharp-tongued teacher, 
and who was on the verge of rebellion, because, as he said, 
he "could not stand the scoldings" of this teacher, and 
would rather "take a good whipping" than be subjected to 
the stinging rebukes that she administered. His ire had 
been aroused and he had replied in kind. The temptation 
was great, as the writer knew well enough — but the neces- 
sity for suffering in silence was even greater. A long talk 
ensued. The ideals of respect for womanhood were laid 



CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL PENALTIES 211 

before the boy just as clearly as the writer could present 
them, — the need for self-control in situations of this type, 
the contempt that the world has for the man who fails in 
self-mastery, and the contempt that a man must have for 
himself when he has been recreant to chivalric ideals. The 
attempt to teach fundamental lessons through a preachment 
is not often successful, but it happened to be in this case, 
and the boy went back with an apology given in the right 
spirit. It was a lesson not listed in the syllabus on "morals 
and manners," but a lesson that every boy who is to become 
a gentleman and not a cad must learn sooner or later, and the 
school usually offers opportunities for its effective incul- 
cation. It should go without saying, also, that the teacher 
in this case needed an admonition of somewhat similar tenor 
on the manifest unfairness of making cutting remarks. 

The Dangers of Weak Sentimentalism in Doctrines 
of Discipline. — A very serious danger to the welfare of 
the schools (and to the stamina and " grain " of the 
coming generation) lies in the tendency to treat dis- 
ciplinary problems from the emotional point of view. 
Sympathy there must be, as we have hitherto insisted, 
and the discussions of discipline do right to emphasize 
this factor. But sentimentalism there must not be. It 
is here that the advice given to teachers in their " in- 
stitutes " has done incalculable injury to the children 
of the land. Teachers have been led into quite the 
wrong attitude by maudlin tales of the boy who was 
punished for being sleepy and who, the teacher after- 
ward discovered, had been sitting up all night with his 
sick mother ; of the poor lad who was treated harshly 



212 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

for stealing a fellow pupil's lunch, when later investiga- 
tion proved that he had come to school without break- 
fast, and perhaps had had for last night's supper only a 
crust of stale bread ; of the poor girl who was compelled 
to remain after school and of whom it later developed 
that her father thrashed her because she could not go 
home in time to do the housework, — the recreant 
mother having left for parts unknown. Each one of 
these cases may be absolutely true in its details, and an 
occasional reference to the danger of injustice in dis- 
cipline is certainly justified. But continual indulgence 
in this sort of pabulum has the same weakening influence 
that the wishy-washy Sunday school stories, once so popu- 
lar, certainly exerted. And in a great many instances, 
the motive of the institute instructor in portraying these 
sad instances is not to instill a lesson, but rather to 
produce a momentary effect by a truckling appeal to 
sentiment. Add to this the fact that the cases are not 
always true, but very often purely imaginary, and re- 
membering that the majority of American teachers 
receive no advice regarding discipline except that which 
drips down from the institute lecture platform, and the 
seriousness of the situation should be plainly apparent. 
We have known young teachers to return from these 
institutes with the most twisted disciplinary ideals 
imaginable, afraid to make even the most lenient re- 
quirements lest they commit one of the deadly sins 
against which their mentors had cautioned them. 

There is needed, then, in the preparation of teachers 



CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL PENALTIES 213 

and especially in institute instruction, a united stand 
against what may be termed the fallacy of the exceptional 
case. It is the besetting sin of educational books of the 
" inspirational " type, and the damage that it does 
cannot be measured — except, perhaps, in the statistics 
showing the increase in disrespect for law. 

The Place and Limits of Leniency in Discipline. — 
There are, of course, occasions when apparent offenses 
against the authority of the school must be either over- 
looked or forgiven. There are occasions when the pupil's 
realization of the unworthy character of his misconduct 
is so keen and even overwhelming that anything in the 
way of additional punishment is unnecessary either for 
the reform of the individual or for the protection of the 
group. But there are also certain occasions when 
leniency, while the line of least resistance, is quite the 
wrong policy. 

It is not uncommon, for example, for a teacher to 
palliate an offense when the offender is known to have 
been tempted into the commission of the wrong by 
others. This is an injustice primarily to the individual 
himself. Certainly the tempters should be required to 
discharge their responsibility in the matter, but the 
offender himself must be taught that wrong done at 
the behest of others does not free the agent from the 
chief burden of guilt. Again, certain acts of vandalism 
or of marked disrespect are sometimes excused on the 
plea that " boys will be boys " — under the mistaken 
notion that just because a boy is a boy he is to be en- 



214 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

couraged in making a general nuisance of himself. 
Finally, there are those whose attitude toward mis- 
conduct when a child is peevish or irritable — perhaps 
from loss of sleep or from malnutrition — or from " per- 
secution " — is eminently adapted to develop in children 
the habit of feigning illness or imagining that people are 
" down on them/' and of currying sympathy by heart- 
rending tales of woe. There is no greater all-round nuis- 
ance than the man or the woman who has been brought 
up to believe that he or she can be irritable and disagree- 
able if things do not go just right. Allowances may be 
made for individual weaknesses and corrective measures 
must be adjusted to individual needs, but maudlin senti- 
ment and weak, silly leniency probably do as much harm 
in this world as do extreme severity and rigor. 

In an address to teachers on the subject of discipline, we 
once heard an educator of good reputation and rather wide 
prominence make this statement: "Above all you must 
remember that every child at a certain stage of his develop- 
ment will lie a little, and a little later he will steal." We 
listened intently to discover what the speaker would recom- 
mend in the way of treatment, but this statement closed the 
topic, and the audience, — made up largely of teachers 
scarcely more than boys and girls themselves, — went from 
the lecture with the general impression that this tendency 
should remain uncorrected, and that the speaker would let 
children lie and steal until they had got the impulse out of 
their systems. 

Summary. — In general we may conclude that one of 
the first duties of the teacher in discipline is to see to it 



CONTEMPORARY SCHOOL PENALTIES 21 5 

that the way of the transgressor is not a path of roses, 
and that, in the interest of the pupil himself, as well as 
in the interest of the group, misconduct is corrected. 
But it is also clear that the correction will vary in its 
intensity, not only with the nature and the gravity of 
the offense, but also with the nature of the individual. 
The administration of discipline must take into account 
individual differences, and these differences will be the 
theme of the following chapter. 

Questions and Exercises 

1. List the penalties described in this chapter in the 
order of their effectiveness in school discipline. 

2. What forms of misdemeanor in school could be effec- 
tively met by imposing the penalty of "satiation." 

3. Under what conditions (if any) would it be well to de- 
prive a pupil of the recess period as a penalty for misconduct ? 

4. Herbert Spencer advocated leaving punishment to the 
operation of the "natural consequences" of misdeeds. 
Name some school misdemeanors that could be adequately 
treated by applying this theory. 

5. What school penalties have, in your experience as a 
pupil and student, been most effective? Can you explain 
why they have been effective? 

6. How would you organize a sixth-grade classroom in 
order to make certain monitorial positions prizes to be 
sought by the pupils, and the withdrawal of the privileges an 
effective penalty for misconduct ? What monitorial positions 
would you establish, and how would you distribute them ? 

7. What standards would you apply in determining 
whether an offense should lead to light punishment, severe 
punishment, or no punishment at all? 



CHAPTER XIII 

The Troublesome Types 

In the preceding chapters, the discussion has had to 
do chiefly with the unruly school, and an attempt has 
been made to classify and describe the ways in which 
this unruly spirit may be curbed and a more wholesome 
spirit engendered. While the most troublesome prob- 
lems of control are associated with this task of reducing 
the unruly spirit prevailing among the majority of the 
pupils, and while the first efforts of the teacher must be 
directed toward these problems, other difficulties will 
appear from time to time even after a good spirit has 
been established. 

The Two Functions of Discipline. — As a preliminary 
step to the discussion of these individual cases, it will be 
well to review two of the functions that disciplinary 
measures must fulfill. In the first place, the conditions 
that are essential to good school work must be preserved. 
The rights of the many must not be invaded or invali- 
dated by the whims or the caprice of the few. The 
group must be protected against the individual. In the 
second place, the individual must be protected against 
himself, — against the impulses and desires that would 
interfere with his growth and his development. 

216 



THE TROUBLESOME TYPES 217 

The distinction here drawn should be explicitly recog- 
nized in school practice. There are many expressions and 
activities among the individuals of the pupil-group that 
are reprehensible simply and solely because they interfere 
with the rights of others, — they are inimical to the con- 
ditions that are essential to order, quiet, and industry; 
but they are not, in themselves, reprehensible. Whispering 
and note passing are typical examples of such activities. 
Disturbances in the classroom may be quite harmless as 
regards the progress of the individuals making the disturb- 
ance. Rough games and hand-to-hand physical combats 
in the school yard may be thoroughly wholesome and bene- 
ficial to the individuals concerned. But in all of these in- 
stances, the rights of others may be invaded, and this fact 
may serve to stamp the activities as antisocial and therefore 
as reprehensible. On the other hand, there are certain 
expressions and activities of the individual which would be 
inimical to his own progress, but which could hardly be said 
to interfere in any direct way with the welfare and progress 
of the group. The idleness of the individual, for example, 
unless it leads to distracting mischief (as it is quite likely 
to do), may be free from direct social consequences, and yet 
it is, obviously a wrong to the individual to permit him to 
persist in this idleness. "Cheating" is, in general, to be 
looked upon as an individual defect, injuring primarily and 
directly only the individual himself ; stealing, on the other 
hand, interferes unequivocally with the rights of others. 

The distinction is somewhat analogous to that made in 
law between "crimes" and "misdemeanors" on the one 
hand, and "vices" upon the other hand. Crimes and mis- 
demeanors may be vices as well, but there are some crimes 
that could scarcely be called vices and some vices that the 
law does not recognize as crimes. A crime or a misde- 
meanor is an offense committed against the state, — that 



2l8 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

is, against organized society; and society itself determines 
what acts are to be recognized as offenses against itself. 
Thus the code of crimes and misdemeanors varies from 
generation to generation, and among different social groups 
in the same generation. The Ionians, for example, made 
it a crime not to laugh occasionally, and punished the crimi- 
nal with exile. The modern world considers excessive gravity 
as a vice at worst, and at times in the world's history it has 
even been looked upon as a virtue. When printing was 
first introduced into Europe it was looked upon as anti- 
social, and to print a book in France during the second 
quarter of the seventeenth century was to commit a crime 
for which the death penalty could be exacted. Vices, on 
the other hand, are looked upon, not as wrongs against the 
state or against society, but simply and solely as individual 
faults. Society may condemn them, but it does not label 
them as crimes or misdemeanors unless it is convinced that 
the rights of others are directly imperiled. 1 

While the discipline of the law is concerned only with 
crimes and misdemeanors, — that is, only with offenses 
that have been distinctly recognized as against society, 
— the discipline of the school is equally concerned both 
with activities that invade the rights of others and with 
activities that are primarily reprehensible because of 
their effect upon the individual. And the school, too, 
must include under each head types of misconduct that 
could not be recognized either by the law as misde- 
meanors or crimes, or by society generally as vices. In 
other words, there are specific " school misdemeanors " 

1 Cf . F. H. Wines, Punishment and Reformation, New^York/iSps, 
ch. ii. 



THE TROUBLESOME TYPES 21 9 

and specific " school vices " which must be recognized 
and corrected. Whispering under certain conditions is 
a specific school misdemeanor ; disobedience is a school 
misdemeanor ; inattention and " scamping " one's work 
are specific school vices. 

The Troublesome Types. — The writer recently asked 
three superintendents of large city school systems to 
give him the names of the three teachers in each system 
who were most competent from the point of view of 
" discipline." He then asked each of these teachers to 
state how many pupils under his or her charge would be 
classed as " troublesome." The answers indicate very 
clearly that, even in classrooms where order and dis- 
cipline are most commendable, troublesome cases do 
occur. The proportions vary, but it is safe to say that, 
in every classroom of from thirty to forty pupils, at 
least three or four boys and one or two girls will be 
relatively hard to control. This suggests, among other 
things, the essential injustice of leading young teachers 
to believe that the presence of troublesome pupils re- 
flects ignominious discredit upon themselves as teachers, 
— a policy which has often succeeded effectually in 
covering up cases thai need serious attention. It also 
suggests the possibility of grouping these troublesome 
cases into " types " marked off from one another by 
certain definite characteristics, and associated with cer- 
tain definite kinds of treatment. This represents a field 
of educational investigation not yet exploited. It is 
essential, however, to recognize the need* of studying 



220 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

individual cases, and while a thoroughly scientific and 
trustworthy classification of types cannot be made at 
the present time, something may be done to indicate to 
the young teacher some of the symptoms to look for 
and some of the steps that may be taken in dealing with 
the various groups. 

The Stubborn Pupil. — This is perhaps the most 
troublesome type, — the more so because the highly 
refractory disposition may go hand in hand with a goodly 
measure of ability. There is a current theory that the 
lack of docility is a promising trait : a favorite metaphor 
compares the refractory child with the diamond in the 
rough which owes to its hardness the possibility of 
" taking " a high polish. There is possibly a germ of 
truth in the theory, but it should not be advanced — as 
it so often is, — to palliate weak-kneed and least-resist- 
ance methods of dealing with such children. The 
diamond still in the rough has no brilliance; its facets 
must be fashioned and tooled if they are to give forth 
their luster. And while the refractory child may be a 
genius in embryo, the chances are that the proper sort 
of discipline is essential to make the genius dynamic 
rather than potential. This is only another way of 
saying that the stubborn child must be conquered. 

The prime requisite here is persistence. There must be 
neither compromise nor surrender. The task assigned must 
be done, no matter how disagreeable is the experience of 
compelling its doing. The writer once witnessed, at suc- 
cessive stages of the process, the conquest of a self-willed 



THE TROUBLESOME TYPES 221 

child. This child was three or four years old, and had been 
permitted to cut papers on the promise that he would clean 
up the debris. When he had tired of the cutting, he was 
told to pick up the scraps, but he at once rebelled. The 
mother could easily have completed the task, but that would 
only mean, of course, a sanctioning of the disobedience, and 
postpone until a later date the inevitable conflict. The 
mother was too wise to adopt this "easy" solution. The 
storm broke about noon. It was raging when the writer 
left the house at one o'clock. At three when he returned 
it was still in progress ; a few of the papers had been col- 
lected, but the floor was still littered. There was no sign 
of the breaking of the clouds. He left at four, and when 
he returned at six, the floor was clean, the boy was playing 
happily and serenely, and the mother was engaged in her 
household work. Inquiry revealed the fact that for nearly 
five hours a battle royal had raged, — and then, suddenly 
and apparently without warning, the capitulation had come. 
There are those, of course, who will protest against this 
drastic method of "breaking" a child's will, but between 
this and the ineffectiveness of surrender or compromise there 
can be no reasonable question. 

The teacher with thirty or forty pupils under his or 
her control cannot, of course, take the time of the class 
to deal with pupils who " balk " at certain requirements 
or assignments, but the necessity of persistence and the 
suicidal effect of surrender are no less clearly indicated. 
While less heroic measures should be tried first, there is 
every justification, if these fail, for retaining the pupil 
after hours until he accedes to the request or command in 
question, or even of resorting to corporal punishment 
or to suspension until he learns to obey. 



232 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

What has been said should not be taken in dispar- 
agement of " diplomatic " and " tactful " methods of 
dealing with refractory cases, in so far as these do not 
involve surrender or compromise. In general, however, 
what most people mean by diplomacy in referring to 
problems of this type is simply letting the stubborn 
individual have his own way and making the best of it. 
It is well to be diplomatic, but the limits of the practice 
are clearly indicated. Diplomacy should keep one from 
needlessly arousing antagonism and from needlessly 
irritating the individual into a refractory mood. It 
should not be extended to indulging a whim under the 
impression that the favor of indulgence will be repaid in 
later repression and obedience. It is well in other words 
to insist that the boy do his chores before permitting him 
to go fishing. It is a fatal kind of diplomacy to let him 
go fishing first in the fond hope that he will so thoroughly 
appreciate the kindness that he will come back early and 
finish his work. 

It is our belief that a goodly proportion of the"whiners" 
in the world owe their whining and petulant dispositions 
in part to weak methods of control in childhood. They 
then learned that a certain type of obstinacy usually 
gained their point, — whining and " fussing " and mak- 
ing themselves disagreeable until the opposition was 
worn out. This kind of false discipline is more frequently 
met with in the home than in the school, but it is not 
unknown in the latter institution. We have a distinct 
image of a little fellow in the second grade who was 



THE TROUBLESOME TYPES 223 

obstinate by nature, and who had fortified his obstinacy 
by an unusual development of the art of whining and 
wheedling. If he could not have his own way, he would 
not rage; he would " sulk." He came from the most 
destitute family in the school district, and for this reason 
both pupils and teachers pampered him, — a type of 
tragedy that has not got into the story books! 

The Haughty Pupil. — This type is much more hope- 
ful than the stubborn type. Occasional trouble is 
experienced, however, in holding such pupils to the 
standards of conduct and achievement that must be 
made common to all. The haughty individual has an 
overweening sense of his own superiority, and in the case 
of children this idea is very likely to have been nurtured 
and intensified by the ideals and practices of the home 
training. If the public school means anything as a 
nursery of democratic ideals, it means that absolute 
equality of opportunity must prevail, and this implies 
that no exceptions can be made in the application of 
standards. Eminence in school life must come as the 
reward of exceptional individual ability as testified by 
individual achievement; and the individual seeking 
eminence of this type must do more than his share in the 
collective enterprises, not less than his share. He must 
stand out from his fellows because he has demonstrated 
his ability to bear a heavier burden, and not because 
the extrinsic factors of birth and social station relieve 
him from responsibilities that the humbler and less 
fortunate must bear. 



224 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

Fortunately in most American families this wholesome 
point of view prevails ; but there are some cases in which 
prominent and influential parents expect the school to 
give to their children special privileges and special favors, 
especially in the way of exemptions from stated duties. 
The teacher or the principal who truckles to these de- 
mands does so at the cost of his professional self-respect 
— and more often than not suffers materially, for, while 
the people as a whole may be trusted loyally to support 
measures that are just and equitable, there is nothing 
that will shorten the tenure of a teacher or a principal 
more certainly than an effort to gain the support of this 
or that influential citizen through showing special favors 
to his children. 

Teachers who serve in districts where rich and poor live 
in close proximity and send their children to the same school 
are often approached by the wealthier parents to excuse 
pupils from school for trivial reasons, — attending parties, 
going to the theater, and the like. The attitude of these 
parents is well illustrated by a mother who approached a 
principal with a request of this type. She listened im- 
patiently while the rules of school and the necessity for an 
impartial administration were explained. "But," she ob- 
jected, "these rules are made for the ragamuffins who come 
to this school. They are not made for the children of good 
families. Of course these poorer children must be kept in 
school, for they will be subject to bad influences on the street 
and probably also at home ; but our children do not belong 
to this class." Further argument seemed to be unavailing, 
and the mother left in a "huff," — but her daughter re- 
mained in school. 



THE TROUBLESOME TYPES 225 

The Self-complacent Pupil. — The haughty pupil can 
ordinarily be effectively appealed to on the basis of his 
pride, but the self-complacent child is difficult to manage 
chiefly because he will not readily respond to this or any 
other stimulus. He is satisfied with his attainments, 
even though they be mediocre. His utter lack of shame 
or remorse when he fails is often pitiable to note. He is 
content to accept defeat, for defeat has no sting for him. 
Nothing will imperil his self-satisfaction, and he is likely 
to go through life working very far below his real ability. 
It is in cases of this type that the second problem of 
discipline — to save the individual from himself — 
becomes of prime importance. 

The treatment " indicated " for the self-complacent 
pupil is simple enough in theory, but far from simple in 
application. It involves a continual incitement to 
higher standards. The devices of rivalry and emulation 
must be called upon in a degree that would be quite 
unnecessary with the normal child, and perhaps even 
harmful with the hypersensitive child. The self-com- 
placent child, if (as is often the case) he has a goodly 
measure of ability, must be shown how far he is below 
attainments of others. Here the " scales " already 
referred to may play an important role. The " individ- 
ual assignment " may also be employed with good 
results, provided that enough competition is added to 
keep the assignment from being " scamped." 

The Irresponsible Pupil. — This type has many 
characteristics in common with the self-complacent 

Q 



226 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

pupil, but is likely to be more " flighty " and " efferves- 
cent." The irresponsible pupil cannot be depended upon 
to carry out directions or to be faithful to a trust. He 
shirks his duties and " scamps " his work. Like self- 
complacency, this irresponsible attitude is likely to grow 
upon itself and to become the source of serious trouble in 
later life ; consequently, a serious problem of the early 
training is to counteract this unfortunate tendency. 

There is no " royal road " to this goal. Responsibil- 
ity is invariably an outcome of experience, and the prob- 
lem is to provide experiences that will engender it. 
The older children in large families get the requisite 
training through numberless experiences in which they 
must render a strict accounting for the care of younger 
brothers and sisters. It is impossible to reproduce in 
the school conditions equally rigorous, but a great deal 
may be done in seeing to it that assigned tasks are faith- 
fully executed, and especially that the child be led gradu- 
ally to work for longer and longer periods independently 
of the direct oversight of the teacher. Eternal vigilance 
here, as in dealing with most of these troublesome types, 
is the price that must be paid for success. As one very 
successful teacher reports, "The only treatment that 
I have found to be effective in the case of irresponsible 
children is constant vigilance and strictness " ; and an- 
other writes after " Irresponsible," the two words 
" Strict discipline." 

Enlightening this constant rigor of discipline, however, 
there should be with children, in the upper grades at 



THE TROUBLESOME TYPES 227 

least, some effort toward generalizing the virtues that 
the discipline emphasizes. Reference may be made to 
anecdotes which show clearly the meaning of responsibil- 
ity. It is essential that these be presented artfully if 
they are to fulfill their important function. Too fre- 
quently these anecdotes fail to affect the conduct of the 
pupils because the characters whose actions are depicted 
are cast in too heroic a mold. The child sees nothing in 
common between the conditions that are being described 
and his own life. The stories interest him, but they 
do not inspire him to similar conduct. The very best 
anecdotes for this purpose are the true stories of faithful 
and heroic conduct upon the part of normal boys and 
girls. Collections of these are now available, and may 
be used, we believe, with very good effect. 1 Care must 
be taken not to " preach " or ostentatiously to " point 
the moral." 

The " Boy Scouts " organization represents a well- 
matured plan for developing ideals of responsibility, and 
this plan is especially to be commended because it 
recognizes the necessity of relating the moral virtues to 
the simple affairs of everyday life. Its efficacy is to be 
explained in part by the fact that it enlists in the service 
of the moral and social ideals the boy's strong, instinctive 
interests in hunting, camping, and mimic warfare. The 

1 The methods of moral instruction devised by Mr. F. J. Gould per- 
haps illustrate most clearly the principles that we have in mind, and 
the anecdotes collected by Mr. Gould are especially commendable from 
this point of view. See also Sneath and Hodges, Golden Rule Series of 
Readers, and Moral Training in School and Home (New York, 1912). 



228 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

privileges that the organization affords operate as incen- 
tives to the fulfillment of the conditions, and among these 
conditions it is a simple matter to include the virtues that 
we have been discussing. 1 

The Morose Pupil. — This is one of the most difficult 
types to deal with effectively. The morose pupil is 
likely to meet the best-intentioned advances sullenly 
and suspiciously. He wears a " chip on his shoulder " 
habitually. His constant attitude is one of antagonism, 
and the ultimate danger of permitting the attitude to 
grow upon itself is that his own antagonism incites a tike 
attitude in others. 

The first effort of the teacher, therefore, should be to 
preserve at all costs the " objective attitude," — to avoid 
falling into an antagonistic attitude toward the pupil. 
" Meet the sullenness with unvarying good nature" is 
the tenor of the reports from successful teachers regarding 
the treatment of this type. This, however, is only the 
initial step. Methods must be devised that will lead 
the morose child gradually " out of himself." He must 
become absorbed in his work, and here the " individual 
assignment " becomes of large importance, and among 
these assignments should be a liberal admixture of special 
school responsibilities. As one teacher says, "In dealing 
with a morose child, I have found the most effective plan 
to be that of investing him with special responsibilities. 

x It is possible to organize Boy Scout camps in connection with 
schools. For directions as to procedure in the matter, address the 
Chief Scout Executive, 200 Fifth Avenue, New York City. 



THE TROUBLESOME TYPES 229 

By palling upon him for help in any emergency, he is 
made to feel that he is indispensable. It is taken for 
granted that the dignities of his office will admit of no 
outbursts of temper, and I try to overlook any unfortunate 
slips of that kind." It is hardly necessary to add that an 
overplus of " wheedling " is to be avoided in dealing with 
these cases. The " whining," petulant attitude may be 
easily developed, and this should be avoided at all costs. 

The Hypersensitive Pupil. — The " touchy," sensitive 
child is sometimes a neglected problem, — and unfor- 
tunately so, for his weakness is especially likely to become 
a serious handicap in his later life. He is not ordinarily 
" troublesome " in the sense that the mischievous and 
the stubborn child are troublesome. Indeed, if he were 
rather more of a " problem," matters might go better 
with him. He is likely to shrink from the companion- 
ship of the normal children, and to be satisfied with 
friends of his own kind, consequently he is likely to miss 
the wholesome discipline that comes from the rough-and- 
ready give-and-take of boy life. His sensitiveness is 
also likely to make him unusually docile, and the teacher, 
rinding in him some one who never disobeys and for whose 
incitement or correction a mere nod or at most a word is 
sufficient, will show him favors that may still further 
widen the gulf between him and the children with whom 
he should associate on an equal footing. 

Children of this type distinctly need " hardening " 
experiences. They should be encouraged to engage in 
the sports of the others, and, if possible, introduced 



230 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

to some wholesome and vigorous activity in which they 
can " shine." It would be a mistake, however, to make 
such a child too conscious of his weakness, for this 
would only aggravate the attitude that needs correction. 
" Scolding " children of this sort is a negative meas- 
ure that is commonly unavailing. Encouragement and 
praise, when merited, are much more effective. 

The hypersensitive child is all too likely to evince 
symptoms that will be characterized by his fellows as 
cowardice. This opprobrium is scarcely deserved, for 
such children are not often " sneaks," — they under- 
stand the social stigma that attaches to behavior of that 
type too well, and they shrink from the stigma as a real 
" sneak " does not. They will not readily indulge in 
physical combat, however, for they shrink also from defeat. 
It is mental rather than physical pain which they find it 
so hard to bear. We once knew the mother of a child 
of this sort to lock the door on her offspring when he 
ran to the house from a gamin who had chased him down 
the street. The mother noted that the gamin and her 
own boy were " two of a size " and she believed that the 
latter could not learn on any better occasion to take 
blows and give them. She called to him to turn about 
and face the tormentor. Between the implied threat 
in her command and the fear of physical punishment 
from his fellow, the choice was clear, and the boy turned 
on his antagonist with clinched fists and teeth shut tight. 
It was a critical moment, but his courage held, and he 
went into the fray with a feeling quite new to him. He 



THE TROUBLESOME TYPES 23 1 

emerged with a bloody nose and a black eye — but proud 
and triumphant. It was a turning point in his life, — 
precisely the kind of lesson that he needed. The writer 
in his experience as a teacher and principal has often 
been tempted to give boys who were subject to torment 
from their fellows the same Spartan advice, and on one 
or two occasions has yielded to the temptation; but, 
unfortunately for this type of child, school conditions 
forbid the encouragement of physical combat. The 
hypersensitive children must, consequently, be protected 
from persecution, even though it would be much better 
for them to learn to protect themselves. 

The Deceitful Pupil. — We come now to a more serious 
form of individual weakness. Here a serious mistake is 
to permit efforts toward reform to be handicapped by 
the belief that the unfortunate tendencies express an 
inherent depravity. Deceit and " cunning " are to be 
looked upon as instinctive traits; every normal indi- 
vidual will evince the tendencies under certain condi- 
tions. In the abnormal cases, the tendency is unusually 
strong, either through inheritance or through the in- 
fluence of experience. The child who finds that he can 
deceive successfully will inevitably practice the art. 

Undoubtedly the most favorable time to correct the 
defect is in very early childhood. If from infancy the 
practices are invariably met with discouragement, — 
if they are constantly associated with painful conse- 
quences, — they will die a natural death. When they 
persist into school life, the treatment is more difficult, 



232 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

but the principle is the same. The conditions of school 
life should reduce the opportunities for deceit to a mini- 
mum, and where these opportunities are necessarily 
present, — as in examinations and tests, for example, — 
the supervision should be so close that lapses will run 
small chance of remaining undetected. There is good 
reason, also, for attaching to these lapses a serious stigma, 
but one must avoid inducing a permanent feeling of 
shame or a humiliating loss of self-respect. Along with 
this should go an appeal to the dormant ideals of honor 
and fair play. Such an appeal may be unsuccessful 
at the outset, but this should not preclude the attempt. 
Placing a child " on honor " may sometimes be the most 
effective measure that could be taken against the tendency 
to deceive, and, by the same token, excessive suspicion 
and constant watchfulness may simply serve as a chal- 
lenge to cunning and evasion. To steer clear of both 
Scylla and Charybdis here requires a type of skill that 
usually comes only through the discipline of experience. 
The young teacher, however, will do better to err on the 
side of watchfulness than on the side of neglect. The 
most serious situation is one in which deceit and evasion 
are practiced without detection and to the progressive 
demoralization of the pupil body. 

The Vicious Pupil. — Here we meet the type that could, 
perhaps, be consistently characterized as " depraved." 
Where these pupils are found in the school, they are 
usually the product of an unfortunate heredity and an 
equally unfortunate environment. But even though 



THE TROUBLESOME TYPES 233 

the heredity may be clearly and unequivocally bad, the 
attitude of fatalism should be strenuously avoided. 
Traits that seem hopeless at the outset often yield to 
the right sort of treatment. An unfortunate hereditary 
" diathesis " must be met and counteracted in the moral 
and mental life precisely as in the physical life by proc- 
esses of discipline much more severe than the normal 
individual will require. And by " severe " in this connec- 
tion, we do not mean " harsh " or " cruel." Far from 
it. Very often, the kind of treatment that will be most 
effective is that which the home has never represented, 
— a type of treatment characterized by evidences of 
sympathy, care, and affection. Coupled with this 
must be a measure of firmness and decision which will 
effectually discourage the tendency to " work " the 
sympathizer, — for vicious children are sometimes 
adepts in this art, and the young teacher especially 
needs to be on his or her guard lest his well-intentioned 
measures defeat their own purpose most disastrously. 
When we say, then, that the treatment must be " severe " 
we mean that it must be unusually persistent, unusually 
patient, unusually intelligent, and unusually cautious. 
It must not be discouraged with apparent failure, but 
at the same time it must not become somnolent through 
apparent success. It must take account of all possible 
knowledge that can be gained from a study of the home 
environment, of the practices, habits, interests, and 
abilities of the individual. 

Weak sentimentalism is dangerous at all points in 



234 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

the administration of discipline, but nowhere more 
notably than in dealing with vicious pupils. The teacher 
has been exhorted to " love " the bad boy, — as if love 
were something that could be given or withheld at com- 
mand. To single out the vicious child as the especial 
object of affection is to risk placing a premium upon 
unsocial conduct. To give refractory pupils unusual 
privileges and prerogatives in order to gain their good 
will is a plain case of bribing them to be good ; to make 
a duty appear to the undiscriminating mind of child- 
hood as a privilege to be given or withheld at pleasure 
is the last word in disciplinary inefncienc)/ . But when 
children have failed to receive at home the affection that 
the normal child craves, expressions of interest in them 
and sympathy for them may work a miracle of trans- 
formation. 

There are, of course, different varieties of depravity, 
and not all vicious children come from homes in which 
they have been neglected. The child may have become 
demoralized through indulgence and over-solicitude, and 
in this case he needs the sympathy of the teacher just 
as clearly as does the child from the mean and depraved 
home. But the sympathy here, while just as real, 
expresses itself in a quite different fashion. As Stanley 
Hall has so well expressed it, the child who has been 
" over-individualized" at home must be "under-indi- 
vidualized" in school, and vice versa. 

The problem of sex-hygiene has recently been freely dis- 
cussed from the point of view of school practice, and several 



THE TROUBLESOME TYPES 235 

attempts have been made to introduce into the school pro- 
gram an effective type of sex instruction. It is too early as 
yet to conclude as to the practicability of attempting to solve 
this problem through the agencies of public education. In 
the first place, the nature of the sex impulse is not well 
understood even by specialists in sex psychology and pa- 
thology. A great deal needs to be done in the way of investi- 
gation and research before measures are initiated which would 
have so wide and pervasive an influence as is involved in 
making sex instruction a part of the elementary or high school 
programs. In the second place, as the race has long im- 
plicitly recognized, the raising of sex matters to the fore- 
ground of consciousness is likely to result in perversions 
and evils that might otherwise never be suggested. There 
is, indeed, no phase of life more quickly and fatally respon- 
sive to suggestion than this. In the third place, the limita- 
tions of the teaching population in respect of experience and 
maturity constitute an element of danger in carrying out 
through the public schools a propaganda of sex reform. 
Teachers who are scarcely more than boys and girls them- 
selves are obviously unfitted to be intrusted with the deli- 
cate task which such instruction involves. A far better 
method of attacking the problem is through an educative 
campaign among parents. "Mothers' clubs" are now very 
frequently found as auxiliary organizations in connection 
with public schools, and these constitute an avenue through 
which sex knowledge can be passed on to the children in a 
most effective and natural way. 

Where sexual vice of one sort or another has fastened 
itself upon a school community, however, a disciplinary 
problem of serious gravity arises; but the problem, let us 
insist, is primarily one of discipline, rather than of instruction. 
The corrupting influences must be sought out and eradicated 
at any cost. The first step in remedying these unfortunate 



236 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

conditions must be vigorously and thoroughly "antiseptic," 
and this must be followed at once by treatment that is 
"aseptic." In other words, the first thing to do is to locate 
and root out the vice; and the next thing to do is to see to 
it that the chances of its recurrence are reduced to a mini- 
mum. Conditions must be created which will absorb the 
mind with wholesome activities. A well-ordered regimen of 
work and play is the surest safeguard. Supervised plays 
and games come to mind here first of all. The well-organized 
playground with a responsible supervisor in continual charge 
will minimize these and other evils very effectively ; but it 
should be emphasized that the unsupervised playground is 
likely to accentuate the unfortunate conditions. Anything 
that tempts boys and girls to congregate promiscuously with- 
out adequate adult control is to be condemned in the strong- 
est terms. 1 

Questions and Exercises 

1. Arrange the "troublesome types" discussed in the 
chapter in the order of their frequency as found in the 
schools that you have known. 

2. What type of treatment would you particularly avoid 
in dealing with the haughty pupil ? the hypersensitive pupil ? 
the morose pupil ? the deceitful pupil ? the vicious pupil ? 

3. To what extent would you acquaint a seventh-grade 
pupil who belonged to one or another of these types with 
the character of his weakness? 

4. In a certain school, pupils are not only marked on 
the basis of their standing in school subjects, but they are 
also given marks on their report cards to indicate their 
"standing" in respect of certain moral and intellectual 
qualities, such as persistence, cooperation, attention, polite- 

1 See J. Bancroft, Games for the Playgrounds ; H. S. Curtis, Play 
and Recreation. (Especially valuable for rural-school teachers.) 



THE TROUBLESOME TYPES 237 

ness, initiative, courtesy, aggressiveness, loyalty, kindness, 
and the like. How would a plan of this sort operate in deal- 
ing with troublesome types ? 

5. What are the advantages of the Boy Scouts movement 
in relation to school discipline? Are there any dangers in 
organizations of this type? 

6. How would you encourage a weak pupil to stand up for 
his rights among other pupils? 

7. What are some of the dangers of weak sentimentalism 
in a doctrine of discipline? What steps would you take to 
prevent sympathy from doing more harm than good ? 



CHAPTER XIV 

Discipline and the Doctrine of Interest 

In the preceding chapters, the word "interest " has been 
used only infrequently. The avoidance of this term has 
been intentional. The " doctrine of interest " has been 
a very important factor in the improvements in class- 
room teaching and management that have marked recent 
educational development, but it is subject to misinter- 
pretations and misapplications that are likely to issue 
disastrously, and this is particularly true when the doc- 
trine of interest is made the central feature of one's 
disciplinary theory. 

Interest and Efficiency. — It should be distinctly 
recognized, however, that the interest that one has in 
one's work, — the measure in which the work fascinates 
one, — is a most important factor in efficiency. 1 En- 
thusiasm releases energy that is otherwise unavailable. 
Indeed, there are good reasons for believing that what is 
called " mental fatigue " is due very largely to continu- 
ance in work when one is feeling a constant impulse to 
do " something else." When one is engaged in fascinat- 
ing work, on the other hand, effort may be put forth 

1 Cf. E. L. Thorndike, Educational Psychology, vol. iii, New York, 
1914, chs. v and vi. 

238 



DISCIPLINE AND INTEREST 239 

practically to the point of physical exhaustion without 
bringing with it the symptoms of mental weariness. 
From the point of view of economy, the importance of 
insuring the conditions of interest in one's work is clearly 
apparent. But it is very important to understand what 
is meant by interest, and it is absolutely essential to 
recognize that disagreeable and unpleasant tasks are 
not to be shirked or scamped simply because they do not 
appeal from the point of view of immediate interest, j 

Limits in the Application of the Doctrine of Interest. — 
The naive interpretation of the doctrine of interest has 
been unfortunate in that it encourages mental laziness, 
and lends a specious sanction to neglecting tasks that 
lack an intrinsic appeal. It encourages the attitude 
which waits for work that attracts, and discourages the 
appropriate and only rational attitude toward work, — 
namely, putting forth the effort to make the work at- 
tractive. It makes one the slave of one's desires and en- 
thusiasms rather than their master. 1 

Further than this, an uncritical acceptance of the 
doctrine neglects completely the social demands. The 
evils of this tendency may be clearly seen in contemporary 
criticisms of the program of studies in the elementary 

1 The development of self-mastery in this sense is a basic principle 
in the theory of discipline advanced by F. W. Foerster, whose writings 
have had a profound influence in Switzerland and Germany. In his 
Schule und Charakter (Zurich, 1910), he criticizes the dominant ideals of 
American school discipline because they encourage, in the guise of 
interest, the following of the lines of least resistance. A brief account 
of Foerster's doctrine may be found in the Journal of Education (Lon- 
don), March, 1910. 



240 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

and secondary schools. The reformers who would make 
for each pupil a separate curriculum comprising only the 
materials which appeal to him forget (or never grasped) 
the fundamental significance of having among all of the 
citizens of a democracy a common basis of habits, ideas, 
and ideals. Leaving out of account the handicap under 
which the individual must inevitably suffer if he escapes 
the training which others have had, the effect of deliber- 
ately encouraging conditions which would imperil social 
solidarity must be seriously considered. 

The danger here is much more serious than is generally 
recognized. The present tendency in education is toward 
earlier and earlier differentiation of curriculums, and the 
basis upon which this differentiation is commonly justified 
is the doctrine of interest. The argument carries with it a 
certain measure of plausibility. Why should children be 
required to study subjects in which they have no interest 
when there are so many things that appeal to them? Why 
should the "motor-minded" child be compelled to occupy 
his time with books when his whole being calls out for a 
different type of activity? An appeal of this sort carries 
certain conviction unless one apprehends clearly the function 
of public education (and especially the function of elementary 
education) in laying this common basis among all of the future 
citizens of the land. It is a price that must be paid for 
social solidarity, — and not a heavy price compared with 
what a lack of mutual understanding among the people 
would inevitably involve. 

The Conditions under which Interest is Engendered. 

— A common fallacy in the current discussions of in- 



DISCIPLINE AND INTEREST 241 

terest is to neglect the important fact that activities 
which do not appeal at the outset often come to 
be fascinating as one becomes habituated to them. 
This hopeful tendency may be illustrated in several 
ways. 

(a) The phenomena of the " warming-up " period are 
especially interesting in this connection. One fre- 
quently notes in beginning one's daily work a feeling 
of ennui or distaste for the activity. For some time, 
perhaps, the work progresses very slowly and quite 
without interest or enthusiasm on the part of the worker. 
Its efficiency is also likely to be at a low ebb, although 
this is not always true. As one proceeds, however, one 
gradually " gets into the swing " of the work, the initial 
distaste vanishes, and enthusiasm and interest take the 
place of repugnance. 

Students of the psychology of work recognize two 
different types of " swing " — a " general swing " for 
the day's work, and " special swings " for different types 
of work undertaken during the daily unit. Acquiring 
general swing is accomplished by some people through 
a brisk morning walk, or a cold bath, or gymnastic 
exercises. The universality of coffee as morning stimu- 
lant is doubtless due to the fact that it shortens the period 
during which one must " warm up " to the day's work. 
For each separate type of work, many people find it 
necessary to acquire a " special swing." The teacher 
will recognize the significance of this " swing " in passing 
from the teaching of one subject to the teaching of an- 



242 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

other. It commonly takes a short time to get " into the 
spirit " of the new work. 1 

(b) Another illustration of the growth of interest and 
fascination with habituation is to be found in the prac- 
tice curve. Whenever one masters a relatively compli- 
cated type of skill (such as telegraphy, stenography, the 
technique of instrumental music, speaking a foreign 
language, and the like), the progress is usually quite 
rapid at the outset and then becomes slower and slower 
as one approaches the limits of one's ability. The 
general form of this progress when plotted is that of a 
convex curve rising sharply and then gradually flatten- 
ing out. The most significant fact regarding this prac- 
tice curve, however, is that it is never regular, — unless, 
of course, the record shows only the gains made during 
long periods of time. When the progress is plotted 

1 The phenomena of general and special swing have important rela- 
tions to the construction of the school time-table. Opening exercises, 
for example, should be planned to get the pupils into a general swing 
for the day's work, but they should not establish a special swing of their 
own, for this will have to be broken up when the special classwork begins. 
General exercises, then, should consist largely of familiar materials, — 
songs, favorite readings, and the like. Dr. F. H. Hayward has proposed 
a "school ritual" for such exercises, embodying responsive readings 
and chants which will embody in a beautiful and attractive form the 
great moral truths, and with which through repetition the pupils will 
become familiar. The need of acquiring a special swing for each exer- 
cise suggests the importance of having recitation periods long enough to 
prevent undue loss of swing in changing from one study to another. 
This is particularly true of the "content" subjects; in the drill work of 
the "formal" subjects, however, the periods may well be shorter, for 
here familiarity with the material will not necessitate so long a "warm- 
ing-up" period. 



DISCIPLINE AND INTEREST 243 

from day to day, or from hour to hour, the curve exhibits 
a zigzag form. In a typical curve, indeed, each marked 
rise in efficiency is almost invariably followed by a fall- 
ing off, and this depression may last over several prac- 
tice periods, constituting what is known as a " plateau " 
of growth. So constant is this phenomenon that the 
existence of plateaus in learning may be considered 
inevitable. 

From our present point of view, the universality of the 
plateaus in learning suggests at once the impossibility 
of carrying to the extreme the implications of the doc- 
trine of interest. The plateaus represent periods during 
which growth is either very slow or absolutely non- 
existent. They are consequently very often periods of 
mental depression. The lack of progress is likely to 
engender discouragement and to tempt one to surrender. 
The vital policy here, of course, is not one of surrender, 
but one of persistence. It is true that sometimes the 
best thing to do is to stop work for a while and let the 
elements of skill already mastered coalesce, but in 
general a policy of " giving up " is fatal. No small pro- 
portion of the " failures " in life is undoubtedly due to 
the fact that many men and women have never been 
able to get beyond the first plateaus in the mastery of 
the arts or skills that they have essayed. They have 
lacked the virtue of persistence, — or the courage to do 
the disagreeable task. They have given up the work 
and looked about for something else, — ignorant of the 
fact that every art that is worth mastering claims its 



244 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

toll of effort and sacrifice from the learner. A doctrine 
of interest which insists that work must always be 
made fascinating encourages just this fatal attitude. 
The interest that should be sanctioned is the interest 
that comes with mastery, — not the temporary and 
evanescent interest that attaches to the new, the bizarre, 
and the unfamiliar. 

(c) This suggests a third illustration of the funda- 
mental principle that effective interests are products of 
growth. Not only do we have to " warm up " to our 
tasks and generate enthusiasm for them ; and not only 
are there essential stages in the mastery of any art 
which are uninteresting and even disagreeable; but a 
most important factor in making anything pleasant 
and agreeable is the factor of repetition. All of the 
fine arts — music, painting, poetry, and architecture — 
recognize this principle. Not only does the artist pro- 
vide for the repetition of a phrase, a theme, or a design, 
and so induce in those who look or listen that feeling of 
familiarity which is a prime source of aesthetic delight ; 
but those who have learned to appreciate know well 
that the initial presentation may be in no sense an index 
of the pleasure that repetition will bring. The keenest 
enjoyments of appreciation come only when one has 
worked up through effort and struggle to a point where 
appreciation is possible. 

But the principle of repetition has a wider application 
than is suggested by its employment in the realm of 
art. It operates through all of the affairs of life. Cus- 



DISCIPLINE AND INTEREST 245 

torn and habituation transform indifference into liking, 
change initial distaste into fascination, and endow the 
familiar and the commonplace with a subtle charm. It 
is the work that one has learned to do well through 
abundant practice that holds one with an iron grip. It 
is the skill that has cost the most that fills one with the 
keenest delight. 

This does not mean, of course, that one can learn to 
do anything provided only that one persists in efforts 
at mastery. Native " gifts " must be accorded an im- 
portant place in determining efficiency; and if one 
suffers under an irremediable native handicap, no amount 
of repetition and practice will bring him to the point of 
efficiency or serve to arouse in him that delight in 
mastery which is the richest reward that life can bring. 
But it is reasonable to believe that most men and women 
who fail owe their disaster, not to the fact that they 
have chosen an occupation for which they are inherently 
unfitted, but rather that they have been unable to work 
steadfastly and persistently until the discouraging 
" plateaus " have been conquered. This weakness of 
" will," it is true, may be an inherited defect, but if so, 
it is not specific in its operation but rather general ; it 
would doubtless operate in the direction of failure what- 
ever type of work one attempted. 

The advice commonly given to boys and girls to let 
their interests determine their vocational choices is likely 
to be misleading in this connection. The vocational 
ambitions and interests of young people are commonly 



246 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

determined by very superficial factors. There are cer- 
tain kinds of work that are attractive to almost all boys 
at certain ages, — engineering, farming, forestry, sea- 
manship, and the like. Imitation and the sanctions of 
the immediate social group also play an important part 
in determining such interests. Occasionally, a deep 
and permanent liking for a certain type of work is fore- 
shadowed by these early appeals, but we are skeptical 
as to the general trustworthiness of interest as a symp- 
tom of ability. Far better it would be to encourage the 
boy or girl to find out what work needs to be done and 
then to determine whether he or she has native defi- 
ciencies which would permanently preclude his or her 
success. The movement known as " vocational guid- 
ance " promises to be of large service in promoting right 
choices of occupations, first, by acquainting young people 
with the various types of occupational life, — their 
advantages and disadvantages, their rewards, and the 
measure of discipline and training that they demand of 
their recruits ; and, secondly, by identifying individual 
traits of an unmodifiable kind that may either promote 
or interfere with the acquisition of efficiency in the occu- 
pation selected. But the movement is likely to mis- 
carry if it falls beneath the spell of the doctrine of 
interest in its current naive form. 

Mental Growth comes through overcoming Obstacles. 
— The fact that interest and fascination attach to 
activities that have become fairly well mastered should 
not be interpreted to mean that this is the only type of 



DISCIPLINE AND INTEREST 247 

interest that should be recognized, or that it does not 
have serious limitations as an educational principle. 
Routine is likely to be pleasant and attractive if it is 
not absolutely monotonous; that is, if it offers some 
new problems or involves a variety of sensory stimulation. 
The so-called " blind-alley " occupations — ■ the messen- 
ger service, running elevators, paging in hotels, and the 
like — are only too attractive to certain types of mind. 
The routine is easy to master, little " thought " is 
demanded, and enough variety is provided to gratify 
the senses. As a general rule, the occupations that are 
routine in their character are dangerous because they 
are too pleasant ; they make too slight a demand upon 
initiative and constructive effort; they present too few 
thought-compelling problems. 

; Mental growth, it is safe to affirm, comes only through 
effort, — only through the thoughtful, serious over- 
coming of real difficulties. In its very nature, thinking 
is unpleasant, for it means that one has been balked, de- 
layed, brought to a halt. The peaceful flow of the con- 
scious processes has been interrupted by a " crisis." 
The pleasure that comes with real thinking comes when 
the terminus is in sight, — when one can foresee how the 
means will reach the end, — and this anticipation of the 
successful issue may throw back its coloring over 
the earlier stages of the struggle. Thus in retrospect 
the entire experience may seem to have been pleasurable, 
although the likelihood is that many of the stages were 
extremely distasteful. This suggestion gains additional 



248 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

strength from a recognized principle in the psychology 
of memory, — the principle, namely, that the unpleasant 
elements of past experience tend to fade much more 
rapidly than the pleasant elements, 1 — although the 
objects that have been associated with unpleasant ex- 
periences are commonly better remembered than the 
objects associated with pleasant experience. 2 

The Travail of Mental Growth. — Progress in the 
objective sense of the term (that is, progress in one's 
work) is commonly most rapid when the work is pleasant 
and agreeable, — when one is solving a problem with 
the end in sight and with abounding hope and enthu- 
siasm. Here the perplexities have been resolved, the 
troubles are practically over. It has not been demon- 
strated, however, that the periods of effort and struggle, 
when one is groping for the light, are without their 
educative influence. True it is that unless the light 
ultimately comes, growth will be negligible ; but if per- 
sistence and steady effort in the face of odds gradually 
lead to a solution, it means that one has climbed to 
a higher plane, and it is safe to assume that what we 
term in popular speech " mental strength " has been 
augmented thereby. The metaphorical comparison of 
mental and moral refinement to the refinement of gold 
through fire must be accorded a certain measure of jus- 
tification. It takes a certain amount of suffering and 

1 Cf. H. L. Hollingworth : "The Oblivescence of the Disagreeable," 
Journal of Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods, vol. vii, pp. 
709 ff. 2 E. Meumann, Vorlesungen, 1907. vol. i, p. 151. 



DISCIPLINE AND INTEREST 249 

perhaps even of agony to lift one to the higher planes. 
The " travail " of mental growth is too thoroughly sub- 
stantiated by human experience to be dismissed as a myth. 

It is both possible and probable that there are indi- 
vidual exceptions to this general rule. Some men appear 
to drift into power and ability as readily as a boat might 
drift before a favorable wind into a safe harbor ; but, in 
general, the chances of one's making progress in this 
way are very slight, and the theories that sanction such 
alluring hopes are consequently fraught with danger. 
This is the most serious difficulty with the doctrine of 
interest. As its expositors understand it, there would 
be little in it to criticize, for they provide very carefully 
for all exigencies. But the element of danger lies in 
the fact that it will be misinterpreted as sanctioning the 
lines of least resistance, and anything that does this is 
educationally questionable if not, indeed, thoroughly 
vicious. 

The theory that mental growth is not only possible, 
but most certain and most wholesome under conditions 
that encourage the shunning of disagreeable tasks, has 
the support of influential authority. Madame Mon- 
tessori, for example, decries duty and sacrifice as second- 
rate ideals, holding that only weak nations have glorified 
restraint, and that only inferior individuals need to be 
subjected to this type of discipline. 1 This is an extreme 
view which few of the advocates of the doctrine of 

1 Cf. M. Montessori, Pedagogical Anthropology (trans, by F. T. Cooper), 
New York, 1913, pp. 92-93. 



« 
25© SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

interest would indorse, and yet it is the logical terminus 
of the kind of reasoning which the doctrine involves. 1 

The Relation of Discipline to Mental Growth. — 
From the point of view of the second problem of dis- 
cipline, — the problem of " saving the individual from 
himself," — the paramount duty of the school is to 
teach the pupil to do vigorously and relentlessly the 
tasks that his hand finds to do ; to acquaint him with 
the necessity of working courageously when the task 
does not attract, and when each forward step involves 
supreme effort; to encourage him to hold momentary 
desire and fancy in leash while he is pursuing the goal ; 
to train him to bear the agony and the travail that 
are essential to the overcoming of difficulties ; and, 
finally, to aid him in generalizing these lessons gained 
through many experiences into effective ideals of effort, 
persistence, and rigorously thoughtful procedure. 

1 Some light could be thrown upon this problem by a careful question- 
ing of men of marked achievement. So far as the writer has been able 
to interview such men, the opinion is general that significant advance 
comes only through a process which the word "travail" best expresses. 
Professor A. L. Hall-Quest, in an unpublished study based on a ques- 
tionnaire investigation of methods of mental work, has reached similar 
conclusions. About one in five of those replying to his questionnaire 
asserted that the solutions of the problems that they were facing came 
to them suddenly and without apparent effort, — often during a day- 
dream or "revery," when — to use an expression of Beaunis — they 
were "thinking of nothing." Eut the remaining eighty per cent stated 
that they had to struggle long and hard with their work, and implied that 
many phases of it were distinctly distasteful. One man of rare attain- 
ments whom the writer questioned said that the word "interest" would 
be the very last term that he would use in describing the experiences 
from which he had derived the largest increments of mental growth. 



9 

DISCIPLINE AND INTEREST 2$X 

This task is not to be accomplished by continually 
appealing to evanescent interests or to problems that 
attract because of their novelty or their relative sim- 
plicity. But neither can it be accomplished by invent- 
ing difficulties and arbitrarily compelling the pupil to 
overcome them. The old-time school sought to accom- 
plish the desired end (which the old-time schoolmaster 
saw very clearly) by a process akin to this. The pur- 
pose was commendable, but it was almost inevitably 
defeated by the means which the old-time school em- 
ployed ; at any rate, while a few doubtless profited by 
the severity of the treatment, and really gained in 
power and strength by the experience, the great ma- 
jority were permanently disheartened and, consequently, 
weakened. Strength comes from overcoming difficul- 
ties, but difficulties that are not overcome are not 
sources of strength. Climbing will bring one to a 
higher plane, but if the climber continually tumbles 
back and never reaches the summit, his experience is 
the worst imaginable type of preparation for later 
struggles. So long as strained relations exist between 
pupil and teacher, the kind of effort that makes for 
mental growth is likely to be absent. It is only when 
something akin to rapport exists, — it is only when the 
work rather than the teacher becomes the master, and 
when the relationship of counselor and guide rather than 
that of taskmaster has been established, — that this end 
can be effectively gained. 

Given these favorable conditions, however, the oppor- 



252 SCHOOL DISCIPLINE 

tunities for stimulating the pupil to climb to higher 
planes are numerous. The teacher can then lead the 
pupil to induce from his own struggles and triumphs the 
essential lessons of persistence, patience, and resolute 
tliinking. It is here, we take it, that the art of teach- 
ing culminates; certainly it is at this point that dis- 
cipline in the broadest sense of the term becomes an 
effective agency for growth in mental power and ability. 

Questions and Exercises 

1. Note in your own work the effect of interest, enthu- 
siasm, and fascination upon efficiency. Note under what 
conditions you do (a) the best work, (b) the most work. 

2. Note the influence of pleasant and unpleasant work 
with reference to the feeling of weariness or exhilaration that 
each may give rise to. 

3. Do you rind that it is necessary to go through a period 
of "warming-up" to get into a "general swing" for the 
day's work? Watch your daily "work curve" for variations 
in this connection. 

4. At what points in the mastery of a new art or skill 
have you found the work most laborious and least interesting ? 

5. Can you find in your own experience illustrations of 
the statement that "fascination comes with habituation"? 

6. State the doctrine of interest in a form that will not 
encourage the following of the lines of least resistance. 



INDEX 



Accuracy, 67. 

Achievement, in pupil group, 223. 

Address, and teaching personality, 31, 
32. 

Administration of school, and dis- 
cipline, 17, 19, 48, 59 f., us, 124 f., 
128 ff., 147, 156 L, 209 ff. 

Adolescence, corporal punishment in, 
184. 

Esthetic appreciation, factor of effort 
in, 245. 

Anecdotes, as means of moral training, 
227. 

Anger, and punishment, 195 ; and the 
objective attitude, 52. 

Animal psychology, reward and pun- 
ishment in, 166. 

Antagonism, attitude of, 63, 251. 

Apology, collective, 101. 

Appearance, personal, 31 ff. 

Arithmetic, standard tests in, 68 f. ; 
individual assignments in, 76, 80. 

Arnold, F., 134 n. 

Arnold, Thomas, hi. 

Ascham, R., 176. 

Assembly room supervision, 160 f. 

Assignments, individual, 75 ff. 

Association of reward or penalty with 
conduct, 164 f. 

Attitude, objective, 25, 51 ff.; of 
public toward discipline, 54, 172 f. ; 
of pupils, 2, 20, 62 ff ., 98, 200. 

Authority, respect for, 51. 

Ayres, L. P., 68. 



Bancroft, J. B ., 236. 

Beccaria, C., 182. 

Bentham, J., 182. 

Biblical injunctions regarding corporal 

punishment, 179 f. 
" Bluffing," 149. 
Book, W. F., 35. 

253 



Boyce, A. C, 26. 

Boy Scouts, organization of, in schools, 

227 f. 
"Boys will be boys," 213. 
Braselman, F. M., 203. 
"Breaking the will," 221. 

BUELLESFIELD, H., 26, 27. 

Buildings, mutilation of, 153 f. 
Burriss, W. P., 129. 

Cajolery, 94, 192. 
"Calling names," 14, 156 f. 
Certainty of consequences as factor in 

discipline, 133 ff. 
Cheating, 95 ff., 217. 
Children, rights of, 21, 154. 
Citizenship, training for, 106, 239 f. 
Civil government," analogies to school 

government, 132, 218. 
Civil law, flogging as penalty in, 174. 
Clapp, F. L., 30, 32, 33, 42. 
Clubs, in school life, 114. 
Coercion, by social group, 113 f.; in 

discipline, 131 ff. ; scope of, 132; 

why disappearing from schools, 

171 ff- 

COFFMAN, L. D., 24, 142. 

Colet, Dean, 177 n. 

Collective competition, 71 f . 

Collective offenses, 100. 

Collective reparation, 99, 159. 

Collectivism, and theory of discipline, 
22. 

Colwell, W. A., 96. 

Comenius, 176. 

Common elements in education, 64 f., 
240. 

Community, support of teacher by, 36. 

Competition, between individuals, 70; 
among groups, 71 f. ; with best pre- 
vious record, 70. 

Conduct, modification of, 164 ff. 



254 



INDEX 



Confinement, solitary, as school pen- 
alty, 199. 
Consequences, association of, with acts, 

165. 
Constitution, provision against cruel 

punishments, 175. 
Cooper, W. M., 173, i74» *75 n., 177 n., 

178. 
Cooperation, 2, 5, 90 ff. 
Corporal punishment, 143, 149, 170 ff., 

221; decline of, in school, 175 ff. ; 

infliction of, 194 f. ; legal decisions 

concerning, 175, 195; place of, 192; 

reaction against, 173 ff. 
Coup, importance of the decisive, 

136 ff. 
Courtis, S. A., 68, 69. 
Cowardice, 230. 

Crime, in youth, 22 f. ; increase in, 187. 
Crimes, distinguished from vices, 217 f. 
Criticism of pupils by one another, 

103 f. 
Criticisms of educaiton, 64 f., 125. 
Curtis, H. S., 236. 

"Dark room," as punishment, 200. 

Davis, J. B., 115, 116. 

Davis, J. N., 158, 159. 

Decadent schools, 17 f. 

Deceit, as instinct, 231. 

Deceitful pupil, as a troublesome type, 
231 f. 

Delay in administering punishment, 
206. 

Delinquency, juvenile, 187. 

Demerit marks, as punishments, 204 ff. 

Democracy, ideals of, 7; educational 
basis of, 239 f. ; retrograde move- 
ments in, 193 ; theory of, 93. 

Democratic ideals, and discipline, 223. 

Departmental schools, pupil organiza- 
tions in, 116. 

Departmental teaching, 129. 

Dignity, as factor in teaching personal- 
ity, 31, 32. 

Diplomacy, and tact, 42 f., 222. 

Dirigibility of enthusiasm, 122 f. 

Disagreeable, discipline of the, 165 ff., 
247 f. 

Discipline, and experience in teaching, 
33 ; and procrastination, 38 ff. ; and 



supervision, 19; and tactlessness, 
42 ff. ; and training for teaching, 33 ; 
functions of, 10, 216 f. ; and dis- 
respect for law, 188 ff. ; and interest, 
238 ff . ; meaning of, 6 ff. ; military, 
6; new ideals of, 1 f., 179 ff. ; phi- 
losophy of, 20 ff., 238 ff. 

Disobedience, willful, 148 ff. 

Docility, 16, 90. 

"Dunce-caps," as penalties, 198. 

Duty, and pleasure, 44 ; and sacrifice, 
249. 

Education, ideals of, 6 f. ; in earliest 
years, 231 ; vocational, 183 ; theory 
of, and discipline, 56, 238 ff. ; com- 
mon elements in, 64 f ., 240. 

Efficiency, and interest, 238 f. 

Effort, and achievement, 244; and 
discipline, 119 f. 

Elementary school, causes of failure 
among teachers of, 26 f. 

Emulation, 225. 

Encouragement, 230. 

England, crime in, 133. 

English schools, self-government in, 
in. 

Enthusiasm, as factor in teaching per- 
sonality, 31 ff. ; as function of youth 
and inexperience, 27; dirigibility 
of, 122 f. ; enemies of, 124 ff. ; of 
the teacher, 16. 

Erasmus, 177 n. 

Espionage, 105 ff., in. 

Eugenics, 183. 

Evolution of idea of punishment, 179 ff. 

Examinations, cheating in, 95 ff. 

Exceptional case, fallacy of, 213. 

Experience, and discipline, 25 ff., 27 f., 
33- 

Fad, distinguished from fashion, 4. 

Failure, causes of, among teachers, 26 f. 

Fairness, as factor in teaching per- 
sonality, 31 f. 

Fallacy of exceptional case, 213. 

Falsifying, 135. 

Fashion, as characteristic of well-dis- 
ciplined school, 2 ff., 51, 112 f., 199; 
meaning of, 3 f. ; wrong, 14 f., 114, 
142 ff. 



INDEX 



255 



Fatigue, and interest, 238. 

Favors, as rewards for good conduct, 

93- 
Feeling, expression of, 59 f. 
Feelings, hurt, 43, 54, 59, 229 f. 
Feminization, of teaching population, 

172. 
Fighting, 217, 230; instinct of, 179, 

180 n. 
Findlay, J. J., III. 
Fire-drills, order imperative in, 150 f. 
Firkins, 0. W., 95, 96. 
Flagellants, sect of, 173 f. 
Flogging, as civil penalty, 174; as 

military penalty, 175 «.; of women 

prisoners, 174. 

FOERSTER, F. W., 239. 

Freudian theory of mental derange- 
ments, 55. 

Gambling, 134 f. 
Gary (Ind.) schools, 129. 
Generalization of virtues, 227. 
General merit in teaching, 25 f. 
Geography, individual assignments in, 

72. 
Girls, corporal punishment of, 184. 
Good name of school, as source of 

pride, 102. 
Gould, F. J., 227. 
Government, by pupils, 8, 105 ff. 
Grievance, personal, 57 f. 
Group responsibility, and discipline, 

90 ff. 
Group rivalry, 71 f. 

Habit-formation, 242 ff . 

Habits, of work, 119. 

Hall, G. S., 234. 

Hall, H. E., 108. 

Hall-Quest, A. L., 250 n. 

Handwriting, scales for measuring, 68 f . 

Hanus, P., 190. 

"Hardening" experiences in discipline, 

229. 
Harper, W. R., 124. 
Harshness, 16 f. 
Harvard-Newton scale, 68, 69. 
Haughty pupil, as troublesome type, 

223 f. 
Hazing, 151 f. 



Heredity, and personality, 38; and 
training, 233. 

High school, discipline in, 84 f ., 99 ff., 
140 f., 160 f. ; failure among teachers 
of, 26 f . ; pupils' opinions of teachers 
in, 35 ; theft among pupils of, 152 f. 

Hillegas, M. B., 68. 

History, individual assignments in, 72. 

Hodges, G., 227. 

HOLLING WORTH, H. L., 248. 

Homicides, increase in, 188. 
Honesty, in examinations, 95, 97. 
Honor system, 95 ff . 
Howard, John, 183. 
Humanitarian ideals, development of, 

181 f. 
Humiliation, growing prejudice against, 

184, 198. 
Huxley, T. H., 122. 
Hygiene, sex, 234 f . 
Hypercritical attitude, 103. 
Hypersensitive child, 43, 225 ; as type, 

229 ff. 

Ideals, of discipline, 6 f . ; of punish- 
ment, 179 ff.; generalization of, 227. 

Idleness, 217. 

Ill-temper, and discipline, 41 f. 

Immunities, as rewards, 93. 

Incorrigibles, segregation of, 172. 

Indecency, 134. 

Individual assignment, 225, 228; as 
means of reducing unruly spirit, 75 ff. 

Individual differences, 215, 219 ff. 

Individual, protection of, against him- 
self, 9, 10, 216. 

Individual treatment, principle of, 
159 f., 219 ff. 

Individualism, and collectivism in dis- 
ciplinary theory, 21 f. 

Indulged school, 142 ff. 

Indulgence, as cause of unruly spirit, 
20 ff. 

Inexperience, and failure in teaching, 
27 f. 

Infant education, 231. 

Injustice, collective, 100. 

Insolence, 154 ff. 

Instinct, and diplomacy, 42; com- 
bative, 179, 180 n. ; for teaching, 
30; of subjection, 37. 



256 



INDEX 



Instinctive basis of punishment, 179 f. 

Insult, 154 f. 

Interest, 2, 5, 66, 228 ff. ; dirigibility of, 

123. 
Interference in matters of discipline, 

157 ff., 224. 
Intimidatory punishment, 181. 
Irresponsible pupil, as troublesome 

type, 225 ff. 

James, W., 130. 

Jealousy, 44. 

Jesuit schools, corporal punishment in, 

176. 
Johnston, C. H., 115. 
Justice, 157 f. ; ideal of, 180 f. 
Juvenile delinquency, increase in, 187. 

Keeping after school as punishment, 

203 f. 
"Keeping in" at recess, 204. 
King, I., 83, 85. 

Law, respect for, 194. 

Legal decisions concerning corporal 
punishment, 175, 195. 

Leniency, and disrespect for law, 187 f., 
191 n. ; place of, in school discipline, 
213 ff. ; toward criminals, 186 n. 

Lindsey, B., 22, 23. 

Lines, mischief in, 14. 

Littler, S. H., 26, 42. 

Locke, John, 176. 

Loyalty, to craft ideals, 19. 

Lying, 135. 

McCormack, T. J., 99, IOO. 

McDougall, W., 37, 180. 

McMurry, F. M., 190. 

Malicious mischief, 142 ff., 150 ff . 

Marble-playing, 134 n. 

Marine Corps, as illustrating discipli- 
nary efficiency, 133. 

Marking of walls, 134. 

Marks, demerit, 204. 

Maturity of teachers, and discipline, 24. 

Mechanized routine, and discipline, 
46 f. 

Mental attitude, toward discipline, 2, 
20, 54, 62 ff., 98, 172 f., 200; objec- 
tive, 25, 51 ff. 



Mental growth, and discipline, 250 ff. ; 
travail of, 248 f. 

Mental strength, 248. 

Merit, in teaching, 25 f . 

Meumann, E., 248. 

Mischief, 161 ; malicious, 142 ff., 150 ff. 

Misdemeanors, school, 218. 

Mode, as synonym of fashion, 3 f . 

Monitorial positions, as rewards, 204 ff. 

Montessori, M., 249. 

Moral outcomes of discipline, 95 ff. 

Moral training, 106, 114, 210 f., 227; 
and corporal punishment, 190. 

Morose pupil, as troublesome type, 228. 

Moses, Cleda, 27. 

Mothers' clubs, 235. 

Mounted police of Canada, as illustrat- 
ing disciplinary efficiency, 133. 

Mutilation, of buildings, 153 f. 

Nagging, 19, 210 f. 

Neatness, as qualitative standard, 67. 

Nervous tension, avoidance of, 121. 

Neumann, H., 154. 

New York City schools, 204 ff., 190, 

192. 
Normal schools, recommendation of 

teachers by, 40. 
Note passing, 217. 

Obedience, 92, 140 f ., 148 ff . ; attitude 
of, 151. 

Objective attitude, 25, 51 ff. 

Offender, locating responsibility in, 
160. 

Ohio School Survey, quoted, 81. 

Optimism, as factor in teaching per- 
sonality, 31 f. 

Order, fashion of, 51. 

Organizations, pupil, 114 f. 

O'Shea, M. V., 27, 162. 

Pain, as a deterrent, 166. 
Parent, analogies to teacher, 92. 
Parents, conferences with, 196, 199, 

207 f. ; tact in dealing with, 45. 
Peevishness, 214. 
Penalties, contemporary school, 198 ff. ; 

efficiency of, 166; psychology of, 

164 ff. 
Penmanship, scales of, 68 f . 



INDEX 



257 



Perry, A. C, Jr., 93. 

Persistence, 243; necessity of, 220; 
principle of, in discipline, 139. 

Personal appearance, as factor of teach- 
ing personality, 31 f. 

Personal grievances, 57 f. 

Personality, domineering, 37 f. ; in 
teaching, 29 ff. 

Perversions, induced by corporal pun- 
ishment, 184 f. 

Petty theft, 152 f. 

Phelps, W. L., 41, 47, 123, 162. 

Philosophy of discipline, 20 f ., 238 ff. 

Plateaus, in practice curve, 186 «., 243, 

245- 
Play, regimen of, 236. 
Playground movement, 183, 236. 
Playgrounds, 22, 236. 
Pleasant consequences, contrasted with 

unpleasant, 165 f. 
Pleasantness in learning, 247. 
Plutarch, 176. 
Political conditions affecting education, 

17. 
Practice curve, 186 n. ; and doctrine of 

interest, 242 ff. 
Preaching, in moral training, 227. 
Prejudice, social, 168, 183 f., 194. 
Prevention vs. punishment, 183. 
Principal of school, and discipline, 

124 f . ; reporting cases to, 142, 209 ff. 
Privileges, as rewards, 93 ; and rights, 

20; withdrawal of, as punishment, 

207. 
Probation system, results of, in civil 

government, 186 n. 
Problematic situation in teaching, 75 ff . 
Problems, objective, 60. 
Procrastination, in discipline, 38 ff. 
Profanity, 134. 

Professional status of teacher, 54. 
Program, daily, 48, 121, 242 n. 
Proportionate punishment, ideal of, 180. 
Protective punishment, 181. 
Psychology, animal, 166; of rewards 

and penalties, 164 ff.; of solitary 

treatment, 200. 
Public attitude toward discipline, 21, 

158 f., 172. 
Punishment, corporal, 170 ff., 194 f. ; 

place of corporal, 193 ; evolution of, 



179; proportional, 180; protective, 
181; intimidatory, 181; reforma- 
tory, 182, 198; vs. prevention, 183. 

Punishments, cruel, 175 n., 192. 

Pupils, types of, 216 ff. ; deceitful, 

231 f. ; haughty, 223 f. ; hypersen- 
sitive, 229 f. ; irresponsible, 225 ff. ; 
morose, 228 f. ; self-complacent, 
225; stubborn, 220 ff. ; vicious, 

232 ff.; organizations of, 114; gov- 
ernment by, 105 ff.; gaining confi- 
dence of, 136. 

Purchasing order with favors, 93. 

Qualitative standards, raising, 62 ff. 
Qualities of merit among teachers, 

studies of, 25 f. 
Qtjintilian, 176. 

Rage, and discipline, 41 f. 

Raising standards, 62 ff. 

Rapport, between teacher and pupils, 
92, 251. 

Rational attitude, of pupils toward 
discipline, 62. 

Reading, individual assignments in, 71. 

Rebellion, among pupils, 22 f., 146 ff. 

Rebukes, 210; as penalties, 202; of 
class as whole, 161 f. 

Reformatory conception of punish- 
ment, 182, 198. 

Regimen, of work, 119 ff. ; disciplinary 
effect of, 119 f. ; establishment of, 
121 ff. ; of work and play, 236. 

Religious flagellation, 173. 

Reparation, collective, 99, 159. 

Repetition, and doctrine of interest, 
244 ff. 

Reporting disciplinary cases, 209 ff . 

Repression, 7. 

Reserve, as factor in teaching person- 
ality, 31 f., 33. 

Respect, for authority, 51; for law, 

194- 
Responsibility, 226, 228; of special 

teacher, 48; of teacher, 92. 
Retaliation, in punishment, 179. 
Rewards, psychology of, 164 ff. 
Rights, and privileges, 20; individual, 

21 f. ; of children, 21, 154; of others, 

interference with, 217. 



258 



INDEX 



Right start, importance of, 40 f . 
Rivalry, 225; self, 70; among groups, 

7i f- 
Rod, decline of, 173 ff. 
Ross, E. A., 3. 
Rousseau, J. J., 176. 
Routine, and discipline, 46, 119 ff. 
Rowdyism, 190. 
Ruediger, W. C, 25. 
Rules, and discipline, 43, 134. 
Ruskin, J., 163. 

Sacrifice, 63, 249. 

Sanctions, social, 90 ff., 95, 105, 113, 
135, 171, 177, 181, 183 f. 

Satiation, as a penalty, 201 f. 

Scales, objective, 68 ff., 225. 

" Scamping work," 15. 

Scholarship, as factor in teaching per- 
sonality, 31 f. 

School, fires in, 150 f . ; the indulged, 
142 ff. ; leniency in, 188; support- 
ing good name of, 102 ; unruly, 14 f ., 

29 ff., 51 ff- 

School city, 105. 

School government, contrasted with 
civil government, 218. 

Schoolhouse, construction of, as regards 
discipline, 134. 

School penalties, contemporary, 198 ff. 

School surveys, 102, 190 f. 

School virtues, 67. 

Scolding, 160, 230; as penalty, 202 f. 

Secondary school, failure among 
teachers, 26 f . ; discipline in, 84 f ., 
99 f., 140 f ., 160 f. ; pupils' opinions 
of teachers in, 35 ; theft among pupils 
of, 152 f. 

Segregation of incorrigibles, 172. 

Self-complacent pupil, as troublesome 
type, 225. 

Self-control, 9, 51 ff., 239. 

Self-discipline, 38, 239. 

Self-government, 8, 94, 105 ff. ; legit- 
imate uses of, 109 f. ; in English 
schools, in. 

Self-respect, 198; and corporal pun- 
ishment, 184; loss of, 232. 

Self-rivalry, 70. 

Sentimentalism, in discipline, 192, 
211 ff., 233 f. 



Severity, 16 f., 133, 184 f., 214, 233. 

Sex hygiene, 234. 

Sexual vice, 235. 

Sharp, F. C, 154. 

Sincerity, as factor in teaching per- 
sonality, 31 f. 

"Smartaleck-ism," 14, 150 f. 

Smith, W. H., 65. 

Smith, S., 186. 

Sneath, E. H., 227. 

Snowballing, 44, 134. 

Social basis of education, 65, 240. 

Social conditions affecting discipline, 
18, 20, 36, 63. 

Social demands in education, 239. 

Social prejudices, 183 f., 194. 

Social progress, zigzag character of, 
185 f. 

Social sanctions, 171, 177, 181, 183 f.; 
and discipline, 135. 

Society, method of control in adult, 

ii3- 
Soft-heartedness, 192. 
Solitary treatment, principle of, 199 f . 
Spelling, 71 f. 

Spencer, H., 4, 156, 176, 215. 
Spoiled school, 142 ff. 
Stableton, J. K., 97. 
Standards, raising qualitative, 62 ff. 
Stealing, 135, 152 f. 
Stories, in moral training, 227. 
Strategy, expressed in children, 38; in 

discipline, 52, 159. 
Strayer, G. D., 25. 
Strictness, in dealing with irresponsible 

child, 226. 
Stubborn pupil, as troublesome type, 

220 ff. 
Style, and fashion, 3 f . 
Subjection, instinct of, 37. 
Suggestion, 121. 
Suicide, of teachers, 55 f. 
Superintendent, and school discipline, 

17, 59, 124 f., 128, 147, 156 f., 224; 

judgments of, regarding teaching 

personality, 31. 
Supervision, as discipline, 17, 19; of 

study and assembly rooms, 160 f. 
Surrender, in cases of discipline, 221; 

in learning, 243. 
Surveys, school, 102, 190 f. 



INDEX 



259 



Suspension, 199, 221; as punishment, 
208; contrasted with corporal pun- 
ishment, 195. 

Swing, 241 f . ; special, 242 n. 

Symbolic operation of punishment, 
170 f. 

Sympathy, 2, 20 ; and discipline, 34 ff . ; 
and sentimentalism, 192 ; as factor 
in teaching personality, 31 f.; lack 
of, in supervision, 128. 

Tact, in discipline, 222. 

Tactlessness, 42 ff. 

Talebearing, 105 ff. ; how to avoid 
encouragement of, 108 f. 

Tasks, as punishments, 206. 

Taylor, J. S., 204, 205, 206. 

Teacher, analogies to parent, 92 ; atti- 
tude of, in decadent schools, 18 ; ideal 
relationship to pupils, 91 ; personal- 
ity of, 29 ff. 

Teachers, worry among, 190; prepara- 
tion of, 23 ff . ; pupils' opinions of, 
35; special, 129; suicide of , 55 f. 

Teaching instinct, 30. 

Teaching population, feminization of, 
172; inexperience of, 235; tenure 
of, 25 ff. 

Temper, 45 ; and discipline, 41. 

Testimony, giving of, 107 f. 

Theft, 152 f. 

Theory of discipline, 56, 238 ff. 

"Think room," 200. 

Thinking, relation of doctrine of in- 
terest to, 247. 

Thorndike, E. L., 68, 238. 

Time-table, daily, 121, 242 n. 

Training, and discipline, 33. 

Travail, of mental growth, 248 ff . 

Troublesome types, 219 ff. 

United States, increase of crime in, 133. 
Unpleasant consequences, discipline of, 

165 f. 
Unpleasantness, in mental growth, 247. 
Unruly school, 51 ff. ; general causes 

of, 14 ff . ; problem of, 10 f . ; raising 



standards in, 62 ff. ; specific causes 
of, 29 ff. 

Vacillation, and discipline, 36 ff. 

Vandalism, 134, 213. 

Vice, sexual, 235. 

Vices, distinguished from crimes, 217; 
school, 218. 

Vicious conduct, 150 ff. 

Vicious pupil, as troublesome type, 
232 ff. 

Vigor, in teaching, 27, 121 ff. 

Vindictive punishments, 180. 

Virtues, generalization of, 227. 

Vitality, as factor in teaching person- 
ality, 31 f. 

Vocational choices, 245. 

Vocational education, 183. 

Vocational guidance, 246. 

Voice, correction of defects in, 50. 

Voice of teacher, and discipline, 47. 

"Warming-up" period, and doctrine of 
interest, 241 f. 

Washington Irving High School, 139 ff. 

Weakness of will, 36 ff., 245. 

"Whining," 222, 229. 

"Whipping-boys," 177 n. 

Whispering, 217. 

White, E. E., 58, 149, 221. 

Will, "breaking" of, 221 ; weakness of, 
and discipline, 36 ff.,245. 

Willful disobedience, 148. 

Willfulness, 90. 

Wines, F. H., 218. 

Winship, A. E., 55, 195. 

Work, as master, 63 ff., 239; psy- 
chology of, 241 ff. ; regimen of, 
118 ff.; habits of, 118. 

Worries, as enemies of enthusiasm, 127 ; 
among teachers, 190. 

Writing, scales for measuring, 68 f. 

"Writs of Assistance," quoted, 14, 148, 
203. 

Yerkes, R. M., 166. 

Youth, advantages of, in teachers, 27 f. 



3477 



